DEREK Chisora closed out his career on home soil with a win, outpointing Otto Wallin over 12 rounds in Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena. Judge Bence Kovacs scored it 114-112, Olena Pobyvailo 116-110 and Bob Williams 117-109, all in favour of the celebrated UK warrior.
The bout was sanctioned as an IBF heavyweight championship eliminator, with the winner one step closer to a crack at IBF champ Daniel Dubois as a herd of heavyweights continue to compete in their own little ecosystem underneath the undisputed king Oleksandr Usyk.
Chisora rushed out early, pawing with a faux southpaw right hand as Wallin gave up a little more ground than he would have liked. Chisora’s right hand found a home in round three. Wallin still looked too tentative.
Chisora exited round five with a couple of nicks above and below the right eye. The nick had got worse in the sixth while the blood gently dripped into the eye. Wallin has previous form for slicing up opponents. Could he capitalise where he failed against Tyson Fury six years ago?
Referee John Latham confirmed that the cut had been caused accidentally, resulting in an early decision if it became gross enough to terminate the main event. Wallin remained in sparring mode, unable or unwilling to throw caution to the wind. He may have been winning the seventh, but Chisora stole it in the final 10 seconds with a frenzied furry.
The replay showed that only one shot really landed. The furore was enough. At the beginning of the ninth Wallin copped a cuffing right hand that sent the big man shuddering backwards almost on delay. He rose for a count, shook up as the crowd chanted in unison. Wallin came back towards the end of the round, although his lack of power and killer instinct meant there was little menace in his work.
Wallin was down again in the final round from a relentless burst that put a full stop on the Chisora performance, further skewing the scorecards in Del Boy’s favour. Chisora improves to 36-13 (23 KOs), while Wallin falls to 27-3 (15 KOs).
“Otto Wallin was a good fighter, I thought he was gonna gas out, but he didn’t,” said Chisora.
“It was a hard fight, very hard, I got the cut, both of my ears have popped now. Legacy is made by the fans. I think I’ll be in the Hall of Fame when I’m dead, not now. I love it.”
Chisora went on to hand out some large envelopes containing the names of potential fighting options to be chosen by the crowd. Frank Warren claimed he would make the fight Chisora wanted as Derek proceeded to hold court behind him with further odd requests.
