INSANITY
A belt from Five Guys? Journeys beyond the ropes and phantom knockdowns? Enough talking between the two combatants Audible needs to option the transcript for a niche erotic novella? Thudding shots which, despite the decreased ability of these men, would have finished far fresher fighters (were they to walk on to one)? The cornerman running into the ring to do his own refereeing?
Perhaps just the fact that Derek Chisora, who has never won a world title, took on the faded yet feared former world champion Deontay Wilder when he absolutely didn’t need to.
Derek Chisora and Deontay Wilder were never going to serve up elite athleticism and pure boxing science, nobody was claiming that. Both over forty years old, Chisora’s style has aged better than Wilder’s, which evened it out a bit. These men now crusade on their reputations alone and really, both of them came out of this twelve round clusterfuck no worse off reputationally.
Derek says he’s addicted to boxing, and so are boxing fans. That's why he is still fighting.
It was sold as the hugely popular, enigmatic and erratic Chisora’s final fight, but even his social media posts beforehand implied final fight- in the UK. After being beaten on a split decision in a close but almost impossibly bizarre yet brutal bout by The Bronze Bomber, odds on a rematch in the USA are not going to be long.
There can’t be many people who can say they’ve seen a fight with such madness, but in accepting that, don’t really want to again. It wasn’t pretty- Wilder failed to follow up on his successes and spent the rest of the time wrestling Chisora to the canvas. Chisora proved again he is one determined bastard*. Referee Mark Bates will be wondering whether he could have done anything differently, possibly, but Bates mopped up a mess as best he could. Nobody seemed to know what was going on.
Neither really needed the fight, hopefully. They’ve both earned well and more than provided fans with an excess of excitement and drama over their careers. Derek Chisora and Deontay Wilder wanted to go at it, people wanted to watch it and that’s how business works. Somehow brutal yet lacking much true action despite what the commentary team tried to claim, this fight will live in the memory mostly for being something other than boxing.
It was insane.
*He didn’t need to.
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