Dereck Chisora retains the heart and the fans but time is almost up on this British boxing throwback

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Dereck Chisora was the grand old man of British boxing long before Saturday night’s brawl with Joseph Parker in Manchester.

Del Boy has been in savage fights before, survived knockdowns, found a late knockout punch and stumbled smiling and bruised from the ring under a canopy of applause. Sure, he’s done it all before, but he has never taken as many punches as Parker connected with. Never, let’s get that clear.

At the end of 12 rounds, with the pair on weary legs and after an emotional embrace that threatened to topple to the canvas, the scores were read: it was unanimous for Parker and Del Boy shrugged and clapped. In May they fought 12 torrid rounds and Parker won a split decision. Saturday night’s fight was on a totally different level of brutality and sacrifice. Chisora’s durability and bravery have never been questioned, and in the ring with Parker he took his personal suffering to a dangerous place several times.

The scores, incidentally, were far too close. I hope the official margins of victory are ignored by the people in the Chisora business and that some wise and caring heads suggest to the heavyweight that it is time to look at the retirement plan. It was Chisora’s 44th fight, his 12th loss and at 37 he is not going to discover anything new about his abilities. In other words, he has nothing to prove.

Chisora has been in close to 25 big fights on many nights that shaped and defined British boxing over the past 12 or so years: a world title fight with Vitali Klitschko in 2012; two fights with Tyson Fury; two wars with Dillian Whyte; Oleksandr Usyk; harsh defeats on the road; and nights where a last desperate punch was salvation. And, outside the ring, he has scrapped and been in conflict with the authorities, his opponents, but never the fans. On Saturday night about 12,000 sang his name in defiant respect during the last round. It was quite breathtaking, a privilege to witness the defiant old master letting his fists fly. In the final seconds, Del never let the people down and finished swinging like a man with his eyes closed chasing a wasp in a tornado.

The new Parker, promised by Andy Lee from the gym, was impressive; the old Parker was far more cautious and would probably have jabbed and moved and held his way to victory without much drama. The pair simply slugged it out and Parker had the edge in just about every round. Chisora was dropped or draped momentarily helpless over the ropes on three occasions. He was also trapped and badly hurt many times, including one point in round nine when the referee, Howard Foster, was about to put his arms in to save Del Boy. As Foster started his move, Chisora rallied, the crowd stood and Parker was forced to back off. At the bell to end that round, the theme from Rocky was played in the arena, which was a relief because I thought it was only playing in my head.

Parker’s perfect right uppercut caused most of the damage and from six feet away the impact remained jarring to me as a witness. Chisora had no defence against the fine punch. In round three Chisora fell into the ropes to avoid toppling to the canvas and that was the first count. He was, as to be expected, belligerent at the indignity of a count when he had not been on the canvas, but those are the rules. In round seven, the sweetest right uppercut caught Chisora flush and he sank to his knees. There remained a minute and 20 seconds on the clock in the round and I have no idea how he survived. In the eighth he was sent back to the ropes again and there was another count. The crowd backed his survival, but there were some worrying moments.

Parker is not invincible and he was hurt badly to the body, the right side of his jaw was swollen and he was exhausted at the end. The new-look Parker, with his fists flying and a few risks overlooked, was seriously dangerous. The New Zealander will remain in Morecambe with his family over the Christmas period. He will get some big fights again. In 2018 he lost his WBO heavyweight title to Anthony Joshua, but that was the old, cautious Parker. The Parker from Saturday night might be too much for the new Joshua. It’s all part of the 2022 boxing dream.

To avoid Del Boy becoming simply the old man of British boxing and a walking punchbag for hire, it would be good news if he looked at walking away. In our shortened, sanitised and flashy new business, there will simply not be men like Dereck Chisora in the coming decades. He is the very last of a breed. The final throwback.