Derek Chisora intends to box again. However fat the cheque or significant the title, the calls for him to be saved from himself have been loud for a considerable time and, if ignored, will eventually leave many with regret. Not just Derek.
In the course of 25 years scribbling about fighters and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune they’ve all encountered in the murkiness that stalks the sport, I’d would imagine Tyson Fury has probably accumulated the most words. It is alleged he has a fight upcoming. Beside him in the time I’ve spent musing on boxing probably stands Bernard Hopkins, Ricky Hatton, Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua.
An unscientific instinctive listing. I’ve neither time nor inclination to provide the data. They are five outstanding fighters, Bernard probably the pick of the bunch if I permitted a digression into a pound for pound debate between them. I’ll resist because none of the five are the subject. Derek Chisora, who probably ranks #6 on this list of principle studies of the last quarter of a century writing about boxing is today’s muse.
As news broke this week that big Derek is booked to box Murat Gassiev, a 19-stone boulder from Russia almost 10 years and 200 rounds his junior, I was reminded of the number of times I’d contemplated the morbidity of his never ending, if colourful, career.
Continue reading “There’s nothing else to say baby. Goodbye, so long”
