Deontay Wilder vs Derek Chisora: Fabio Wardley reacts to heavyweight slobberknocker
On April 4, at the O2 Arena in London, Deontay Wilder vs Derek Chisora headlined an MF Pro fight card in association with Queensberry Promotions live on DAZN pay-per-view.
It was a messy main event with points taken off and knockdowns masking the lack of quality on display, with Wilder earning a split decision victory. After the fight, the current WBO heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley gave his honest reaction to Wilder-Chisora.
Deontay Wilder vs Derek Chisora ends in messy split decision
It was ultimately a highly messy fight with very little quality on display. There was plenty of holding and wild swings which missed, but clean punching were few and far between.
Wilder (45-4-1, 43 KOs) produced the cleaner work throughout, finding a regular home for his right hand. Wilder scored two knockdowns, with Chisora (36-14, 23 KOs) going down once in the 8th round and once in the 11th. The American was deducted one point in the 8th for pushing, and also went down himself in the 11th, even though that looked more like a slip from “The Bronze Bomber.”
Despite the late fight drama, Wilder continued to land the cleaner punches. It went to the judges’ scorecards, which read 115-111 Wilder, 115-112 Chisora, while the final scorecard read 115-113 Wilder, awarding the American the split decision victory.
Fabio Wardley reflects on Wilder vs Chisora
Reflecting on Deontay Wilder vs Derek Chisora, Wardley said:
“It was everything you thought it was going to be. Entertaining, had its ebbs and flows, had its ups and downs, it had its moments. It did have all of those pieces. It was a good little scrap.”
When asked how he scored the fight, Wardley said: “Yeah, that was really how I had it. Chaotic. I had it relatively close. I probably was on similar to the judges, relatively close, but I probably did have Wilder in for a round or so, something like that. Maybe just off the little bit of cleaner work. I would have loved for Derek to go out on a win and go off with his moment and his time and what I would call his arena as well, but it wasn’t to be.”
Wardley was also asked if he saw improvements in Wilder from recent performances: “Yeah, we did actually. And unexpectedly, in a sense as well, because we thought off those defeats (Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang) and then off his most recent win still didn’t look fantastic in that either. So, it kind of raised some questions, and question marks whether he still had the energy for it, had it in the tank, but he proved he did, so maybe there’s some more to come from him,” said Wardley.
