By Johnny Walker
David “Hayemaker” Haye dominated his countryman Dereck “Del Boy” Chisora and stopped him today in an entertaining heavyweight fight at Upton Park in London, England.
After all of the noise from certain quarters about the “morality” of this fight taking place, the show—with the exception of some of that infamous London rain—went off without a hitch, surely the nightmare of the now seemingly irrelevant British Boxing Board of Control.
As for the fight itself, Chisora was able to only partially implement his strategy, which included walking Haye down and tiring him out for the later rounds. Chisora applied steady pressure, and Haye did seem to be tiring by round four, but Del Boy wasn’t busy enough and Haye actually outworked him, a big change from the Hayemaker’s recent fights where his punches were at a premium.
Haye loaded up on some big shots as Chisora came forward, though Del Boy blocked many of them with his high guard. Chisora attempted to change the flow in round three and went on the attack as the round ended, clocking Haye and wobbling him with a big left hand as the bell sounded. Haye recovered well in-between rounds, however, a testament to his superior conditioning.
Both men landed near-simultaneous hard right hands in round four, but Chisora appeared to be hurt more than Haye, and Del Boy backed off to the ropes, inviting Haye in. Haye landed a hard left, but Chisora spun around and turned the tables, smacking Haye in the face with a hard left jab.
In round five, Haye appeared to steal a page from world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s stylebook, tying Chisora up and even pushing the bigger man around when he got too close.
Finally, Chisora got careless and Haye caught him with a huge left hand followed by a right.
Chisora hit the mat for the first time in his career, but amazingly he got up and beat the count. A flurry from Haye sent Chisora back down, and he again beat the count, but referee Luis Pabon called the fight off, and Chisora didn’t protest.
With the win, David Haye picks up the WBO and WBA International heavyweight titles, but more importantly, he has upped his stock considerably from where it was when he meekly capitulated to Wladimir Klitschko last year.
“Dereck Chisora has one of the best–if not the best–chins I’ve ever seen in my life” said Haye after the fight.
“He’ll be champion one day, no doubt about it.”
After all the bad blood in the lead-up, both men shook hands and embraced after the fight.
“I owe David Haye $20,000,” Chisora said, a reference to the bet the two men made. The money will go to Haye’s favorite charity.
WBC champion Vitali Klitschko wasn’t able to stop Chisora earlier this year, though to be fair, he was fighting with a left shoulder injury for most of the night. Haye can now make the case that he should be the one to fight Vitali next, rather than the unknown Manuel Charr. One can imagine that any press conference held for Charr vs Vitali will be filled with questions as to why Klitschko isn’t fighting David Haye instead.
Not helping matters for the Klitschkos is the promise their manager Bernd Boente made–captured on film–promising a Klitschko shot to the winner of a “box-off” between Haye and Chisora.
Alternately, Haye could challenge WBA “regular” heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin, and if he is successful, could force a rematch with WBA “super champion” Wladimir Klitschko.
There are many options open to Haye, so let’s hope he doesn’t disappear again, as there is no denying that the Hayemaker creates excitement in the heavyweight division like no-one else at the present time.
