By Charles Brun: In a questionable move, Anthony Joshua’s company 258 MGT has signed British journeyman Dereck Chisora to a deal. This deal could work out well for 258 MGT if they match Chisora carefully against the right opposition.
Chisora will be turning 38, and he’s lost his last two fights against Joseph Parker and Oleksandr Usyk since 2020. For 258 MGT to be signing Chisora at this point, hopefully, they have a good exit strategy if he continues to lose.
On the surface, it’s a logical decision for 258 MGT to ink Chisora (32-11, 23 KOs) because he still has a large fanbase in the UK. But he looked old and poor in his last fight, losing to former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker by a 12 round split decision last May in Manchester, England.
Watching the exhausted Chisora labor through the 12 round fight was difficult, as he looked like he needed oxygen at times. After three rounds, Chisora looked gassed out, and I mean TOTALLY gassed.
If Parker hadn’t been so timid, he would have destroyed Chisora in the first three rounds, as he was there to be knocked out due to his exhaustion.
A good top 10 heavyweights like Frank Sanchez, Felip Hrgovic, Michel Hunter, Joe Joyce, or Daniel Dubois would have likely made easy work of Chisora last May.
The Parker-Chisora fight showed how depleted Chisora is at this stage in his career and how badly Parker has deteriorated as a fighter from his brief time as the WBO heavyweight champion from 2016 to 2018.
Chisora and Parker could potentially fight a rematch, but it’ll depend on whether the money is there. If there is a rematch, it would likely need to be on pay-per-view, and that’s a risky move.
Will the UK boxing fans be willing to open up their wallets to purchase Chisora vs. Parker rematch on PPV, or will they ignore this fight?
During Chisora’s long 14-year professional career, he’s been in with notable heavyweights like David Haye, Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury, Dillian Whyte, Kubrat Pulev, Parker, and Robert Helenius.
Unfortunately, Chisora has lost to ALL of them, which you would expect for a journeyman. But surprisingly, Chisora was given a title shot by former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in February 2012 despite having lost 2 out of his last 3 fights going into that match.
As one would expect, it didn’t turn out well for Chisora, as he was soundly beaten by Klitschko, who fought with just his right hand after injuring his left shoulder earlier in the fight.
“Derek has vast experience of the game and has seen the whole industry from the front-line,” said Freddie Cunningham, the managing director of 258 to DAZN. “We are just really happy with all that experience.
“He feels the 258 team can add to what he is doing. We are excited to get going and looking to negotiate and build-up to big fights before the year is out.”