Derek Chisora returns to the ring for the 48th time in July, this time against countryman Joe Joyce. It’s a fight one past sparring partner believes, and hopes, he will lose.
Chisora has been a stalwart on the heavyweight scene for some time now, entertaining fans with his brawling, all-action style. Despite some thoughts in boxing circles that he should be considering hanging up the gloves at 40-years-old, he booked a fight with heavy-punching Juggernaut Joyce.
Joyce’s career was set back significantly in 2023 through two stoppage losses to Zhilei Zhang. The 38-year-old has since beaten Kash Ali to prepare for this O2 Arena clash against ‘Del Boy.’
Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin, who was stopped by Chisora-backed Anthony Joshua in December last year, told Seconds Out he didn’t like the Brit and thought he would be beaten inside the distance.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t like Chisora. He was very disrespectful to me over in Saudi Arabia and I don’t like him. I think that, not just judging from that, Joyce beats him and probably stops him. We’ll see.
Joyce had those tough losses against Zhang, but to say that he should just retire from those two fights I don’t think is fair. We’ll see how he comes back now, how he looks. He takes a lot of shots so he’s got to be careful, but I think he will get rid of Chisora.”
Wallin elaborated, revealing he had felt very disrespected by Chisora during fight week of the Joshua bout.
“He was at the press conference over in London yelling at Parker, being very disrespectful to him. He kind of did similar stuff to me backstage in Saudi Arabia, so I can’t really stand him to be honest.
I was over there sparring him when he was gonna fight Fury and he only lasted like a week then I was sent home. I can’t stand him.”
