Tyson Fury Pummels Derek Chisora To Retain Heavyweight Title

Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora have been friends for years but Fury sure didn’t treat his British countryman like one when the bell rang.

Fury laid a massively one-sided beating on Chisora in a dominating 10th-round knockout victory to retain the lineal and WBC heavyweight titles on Saturday before a crowd of some 60,000 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London,

𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 👑@Tyson_Fury stops Derek Chisora in 10!#FuryChisora pic.twitter.com/6AZQwOWUWw

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) December 3, 2022

It was Fury’s third win against Chisora and even more dominant than the previous one-sided fights and set Fury up for a likely undisputed championship fight with Oleksandr Usyk in the spring.

Fury easily defeated Chisora by decision in 2011 and by 10th-round corner retirement in the 2014 rematch. When Fury was unable to line up Usyk, who elected to take the rest of 2022 off after his August rematch win over Anthony Joshua, and then was unable to finalize a fight against Joshua, Fury decided to give his old pal Chisora the payday and stay busy.

Winter Conditions Didn’t Detour Fury

So, they met in frigid weather outdoors – temperature in the mid-30s with 17 mph winds — and Fury issued a beat down as Usyk watched from ringside.

From the outset, it was all Fury, who landed almost at will at times but could never get Chisora off his feet. But Fury also never got hit with a single telling blow.

They had promised to come out guns blazing in the first round and deliver an unforgettable round, but they didn’t do anything of the sort. Chisora was aggressive and Fury returned fire but there were no serious fireworks then or in the remainder of the fight because it was all one-way Fury traffic.

“Derek’s always been a tough guy and he comes to fight and that’s why his name is ‘War’ Chisora,” Fury said. “There was no way that he was gonna stop unless the referee pulled him out or he was gonna get knocked out. I’m glad he went out like he did because he’s a great of British boxing and he’s been a pleasure to fight over the years. A 38 years old and look at the effort he put up.”

He pelted Chisora with combinations and right uppercuts and rights to the head. Chisora threw several big, wild overhand rights that missed by a mile.

Fury wobbled him with a right hand in the third round and then again with an uppercut, and Chisora appeared to be in trouble. But he has always had a tremendous chin and sopped up immense punishment.

Fury slowed the pace in the fourth round but clearly won the round and every other one. He lined Chisora up for a right hand in the fifth and followed with an uppercut, a scene that played out over and over. It was target practice for Fury.

By the eighth round, Chisora was bleeding from his mouth and his right eye was badly swelling. Chisora desperately tried to land something big but never came close. All the while, Fury was landing hard head shots and finally, when he connected with a right hand and an uppercut late in the 10th round, referee Victor Loughlin stepped in and stopped it at 2 minutes, 51 seconds.

“Thanks to the ref,” Chisora said, standing with Fury in the ring after the bout. “As a fighter you don’t ever want to stop. You go out on your shield. The ref said, ‘If you don’t throw more punches I’m gonna pull you out. Thank you, Tyson, I really appreciate it. Me and Tyson are friends.”

Fury landed 205 of 481 punches (43 percent) and Chisora landed 87 of 276 (32 percent), according to CompuBox. Fury outlanded him in every round except the first (12-9).

“Take nothing away from Derek ‘Del Boy’ ‘War’ Chisora,” Fury said. “He’s an absolute warrior. It’s been a privilege to fight him three times. He’s an absolute British folk hero. What a warrior. This man has grown upon me over the years. We’ve had three epic fights. What a tough man.

“I was hitting him with shots that would knock anybody spark out. And he stood up to every one of them and he was calling me a little bitch. He was going, ‘You can hit harder than that you little bitch!’”

Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs), 34, who was coming off a one-sided sixth-round knockout of fellow Brit Dillian Whyte in April before 94,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium, retained the WBC title for the third time and the lineal title for the ninth time.

“Stoppage four in a row now under (trainer) SugarHill (Steward),” Fury said. “He said to me (before) round 10, ‘Get him out of here now.’ And we were hitting him at will and the ref did his job.”

For Chisora (33-13, 23 KOs), 38, it was his second loss in a world title fight, having been easily outpointed by then-WBC champion Vitali Klitschko in 2012. But that was when Chisora was a contender, not the steppingstone opponent he has become in recent years. He has lost four of his last five fights, the lone win in the stretch a life-and-death struggle in a controversial split decision over Kubrat Pulev in July.

But one of the losses in October 2020, was to Usyk in the former undisputed cruiserweight champion’s second fight as a heavyweight. He gave Usyk all he could handle in a highly competitive fight.

Will Usyk Be Next?

Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), a 35-year-old southpaw, would go on to outpoint Joshua in an upset to take the IBF, WBO and WBA titles and then beat him again in their rematch last summer. With Fury safely through the fight with Chisora, the Usyk showdown seems likely to be next.

“There’s a big fight coming up. Everyone wants to see one champion in the heavyweight division,” Chisora said “Last (undisputed champion) we had was Lennox Lewis. So, we’d like to see (Fury) and Oleksandr Usyk. That’s what we want to see. I think that’s the fight that’s should happen now.”

Fury and Usyk sure want it. Usyk said so after he beat Joshua last summer and then stepped up to the ring apron when Fury called his name from the ring. They went face to face as Fury screamed at him. Usyk simply smiled back.

“Where’s Oleksandr Usyk, the rabbit? Hey, rabbit! Usyk, you’re next you little bitch,” Fury screamed at him before he came up to the apron. “You’re next! You are next!”

He continued shouting right into Usyk’s face.

“I already done one Ukrainian, (Wladimir) Klitschko (to win the title in 2015) and I’ll do you as well, you ugly little man,” Fury screamed. “Let’s get it on! You may laugh now but I will end this little sucker. End you! Are you gonna do something? You’re gonna do fuck all you little sausage!”

Then Brit Joe Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs), the 37-year-old WBO interim titleholder, also stepped up to the apron and Fury said he could be next also.

“Big Joe Joyce is here! Joe Joyce is a warrior,” Fury shouted. “I tell you what Joe – I’m the only one that calls your name. Everybody else is scared of ya. So if this little rabbit don’t want it, can’t be made, let’s me and you my brother do Wembley! Come on Joe Joyce!”

More likely than not, however, it will be Fury-Usyk for all the belts. Both camps said they will be able to make a deal, there are no promotional issues and no broadcaster roadblocks.

“I want Oleksandr Usyk next or if that fight can’t be made I want Joe Joyce,” Fury said.
But he also said he has injury issues to deal with first.

”I got some hand problems and maybe (need) some surgery on my elbow. After that I’m ready for anybody,” Fury said.

Fury said he hurt his right hand pounding Chisora’s head and that he also came into the fight with a right elbow issue he said he felt needed surgery to clean up.

“We’re gonna go back to the gym and on to the next one, March, April, whenever it’s gonna be,” Fury said. “We’ll be ready to rock and roll. I’ll need 6 to 8 weeks to heal. We’ll see when we’ll be ready for this fight (with Usyk) and we’ll see if it can be made.

“I just think I can beat anybody. There’s no stopping me. I’m on a roll. I just got in 10 rounds. I’ll be match fit going into the next fight. I can’t wait. I’m just gonna keep knocking them out. Whoever’s next will get knocked out as well. Whoever it’s gonna be is getting chinned.”