Tyson Fury spent years climbing out of the deep, dark hole he found himself in mentally. It was the fight of his life and he emerged victorious, like he has on 32 other occasions. But now he finds himself being criticised for the calibre of his next opponent. No man born from his mother as The Gypsy King would say has any chance of beating Tyson Fury, if you’ll listen to what Fury himself has to say about his ability, and he might be right. One man who has tried, and failed twice, is Derek Chisora who gets a third opportunity at becoming the first man to beat the WBC champion. Fury-Chisora 3, yippee!
Boxing fans get the fights they crave not often enough, and that leads to a general dissatisfaction with the sport, with rooters jumping ship to MMA regularly. Fury-Chisora 3 is not much anticipated. Photo from Top Rank/Getty Images
In 2011 the two Brits met in what was a highly anticipated domestic dust up, both men were undefeated at the time and the outcome was a unanimous decision victory for Fury. The rematch came three years later in 2014 which saw Derek unable to continue at the point of round 10. That was loss number five on the record of ‘War’ Chisora.
Now, eight years later the trilogy that nobody asked for will happen, but how?! Derek Chisora defeated Kubrat Pulev in July which saw him enter the WBC top 15 world ranking. Outscoring Pulev over 12 rounds was the first win for the 38-year-old in three years, having lost to Joseph Parker, twice, and Oleksandr Usyk since defeating David Price in 2019. More often than not these questions never get answered, until now. The WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman defended sanctioning Fury-Chisora 3, which has drawn widespread criticism, when speaking to NYFights.com.
“I don’t think there’s anybody who knows about boxing who can question Chisora being in the top 15 of the heavyweight division. He is a fighter who in his career has faced the best of the best in the division,” Sulaiman continued. “There are considerations the rankings committee have for ranking [fighters] and one of those is the status, the record, the recognition of a career. He won his last fight and that’s when he entered the rankings so I see no issue.”
In boxing the fans want to see the best vs the best, undisputed fights for all the marbles and the like. Due to injury the Oleksandr Usyk fight was not an option for Fury in 2022, therefore all roads led to ‘The Gypsy King’ facing off against Anthony Joshua. Fight fans were left bemused when talks between the British rivals broke down, but somehow the two same management teams were able to get Fury-Chisora 3 over the line. There is less bemusement now.
“Of course people want to see showdowns of the important fighters at all times but in the history of boxing we have seen great champions do voluntary defences and not have to risk [it all] in every single fight against top contenders,” Sulaiman said. “I believe Fury deserves a fight that’s not considered as the top, top, top which is [Anthony] Joshua, [Oleksandr] Usyk and [Deontay] Wilder and [Andy] Ruiz. Fury comes [in] from two fights against Wilder and then Dillian Whyte so he deserves the recognition for what he has been doing [and not receive backlash for his opponent this time].”
A point well made by Mauricio, should we be cutting the champion some slack and allowing him a somewhat easy touch of a fight? (ED NOTE: James may be too kind in calling Fury-Chisora 3 a ‘somewhat easy touch.' Fury himself denigrated Chisora a month before this third clash was announced, telling Ring's Tom Gray, “Listen, we have seen Derek Chisora—a torn up, washed up journeyman—give Usyk all he could handle,” Fury said to Gray. “Derek is a glorified journeyman with 12 losses, and most of those losses came in a row.”
Should Fury overcome Chisora, as he’s expected to do, he will have a mandatory challenger in the queue behind Usyk vying to face him. That mandatory challenger could be Deontay Wilder, but much like this Chisora fight, is it one we want to see considering Tyson has clearly defeated the ‘Bronze Bomber’ in two of their three battles (2020, 2021).
Would you be up for seeing Fury-Wilder 4? Maybe we just need some young guns to hurry up and rise the ranks, because there is a lack of viable foes for Fury, arguably.
“Well, Wilder, he’s a sensational fighter, he has tremendous punching power. He held the WBC title for five years, 11 title defences. [Wilder] fought three times with [Tyson] Fury, the current King… He’s a very exciting fighter!
“There were questions on how he was going to return, physically [and] mentally. He was very powerful. After he won his fight [against Helenius] and Andy Ruiz won his fight [against Luis Ortiz] they are in line for a final eliminator for the mandatory position,” Sulaiman continued.
We all want Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk for all four world titles and the Ring magazine belt but could it be more boxing bullshit and politics serving up Fury vs Wilder IIII or Fury vs Ruiz Jr, the man who blew his world title when he underperformed and underprepared against Anthony Joshua?