Boxing News at Five: Chisora wants to avenge Bellew’s defeat to Usyk, Spence targets July return

heavyweight

PERENNIAL heavyweight contender Dereck Chisora has promised to give Oleksandr Usyk a taste of what it feels like to be whacked by a real heavyweight when the pair collide on May 23 in London.

Not only that, Chisora, these days known not as ‘Del Boy’ but ‘War’, has promised a war and promised revenge for his friend Tony Bellew, who suffered a stoppage defeat at the hands of Usyk in 2018.

“War is coming,” said Chisora. “Usyk reckons he can step up and survive with the big boys. He may be the undisputed cruiserweight champion of the world but on May 23rd he will find out what it feels like to be hit by a real heavyweight.

“He is coming to my backyard, I’m going to remind him exactly why he hid in the cruiserweight division and also get revenge for my boy, Tony Bellew. This will be war.”

The nature of this fight will go a long way to determining the result, of course. If, as Chisora hopes and predicts, the fight does indeed end up being a war, he might have a chance of winning it. If, however, the fight is closer to a typical boxing match then Chisora can kiss goodbye to any hope of defeating a skilled southpaw whose talents were too much for the cruiserweight division.

oleksandr usyk vs murat gassiev
Usyk is now campaigning at heavyweight (Tom Hogan/Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions)

As well as thanking his lucky stars to still be alive, IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jnr has been training, both to lose weight and sharpen up, ahead of what he hopes will be a return to the ring in July.

The gifted American, who last boxed against Shawn Porter in September, was badly injured in a car crash in October and for a while it was touch and go as to whether he was going to come away from it unscathed. Thankfully, though, Spence did survive and seems well on his way to making a full recovery.

The road back looks likely to start in July.

“Everybody tune in. I’ll be back real soon, hopefully in July,” Spence told esnews. “We’ll see. I’m in the gym, training hard, staying in focus and getting my weight down. It’s a big difference it makes.”

It would be a surprise if the opponent for July is capable of pushing, much less beating, Spence given all that has recently happened. That said, Spence is more than happy to pursue fights with the likes of Manny Pacquiao, the WBA welterweight champion, and top contender Danny Garcia. He is open, in fact, to fights with any welterweight not called Keith Thurman.

“It can happen,” Spence said of a fight between him and Pacquiao. “We got the same people. We could make it happen. He got two wins against Adrien Broner and Keith Thurman.

“I never fought Thurman. I also never fought Danny Garcia. Thurman? Nah,” was Spence’s response when asked if he would like to fight the former WBA champion. “How long have I been calling Thurman out? Four years now? That’s old news. I don’t want to fight him.

“There’s a lot of options. There’s a lot of stuff out there. Thurman’s not one of them.”

In light of what transpired less than six months ago, Errol Spence Jnr is just happy to have options – happier still to be alive.

errol spence
Spence and Porter went to war last year (Stephanie Trapp/TGB Promotions)

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