40-year old Deontay Wilder was an awkward and ungainly fighter in his prime, and diminished by age and defeat. The dynamite right hand now served by a much longer fuse and damp matches. Chisora, the gutsy shock absorber, aged 42, is mooted to be next? A fight that carries a sense of foreboding.
As rumours of a Deontay Wilder fight with Derek Chisora in England in the spring begin to crystalise into reality, the compulsion to consider the possible ramifications screams loudest for those who have followed and cheered for Chisora for almost 20 years. He is a long way from his prime as a fighter and is signing to face a man with thunder in his gloves. It is a perverse undertaking to continue to write about a boxer you wish would stop fighting. Does the angst of concerned observers eager for a veteran actor to leave the stage sound to the subject much like the adulation and acclaim they seek?
Derek Chisora, despite sufficient success among chequered results that sustain him as a peripheral contender at heavyweight, should be long since retired. Of late, the superficiality of finishing with 50 fights has been introduced to justify his continued voyage toward a diminished later life. The reality of the damage boxers accrue requiring payment at some unspecified point in the future is one all fighters reluctantly embrace.
A marriage of necessity. Chisora should not really need a visit from the ghost of Christmas' yet to come to understand the physical debt he is accumulating or to be discouraged from the path he is on. And yet the trajectory is clear.
Financially, Chisora has earned more than enough to be liberated from that millstone and yet, still, the old slugger keeps on slugging. Three victories in his last three fights, fought over three years, suggest something still remains. It regenerated currency for a man who will enter his 19th year as a prizefighter in February. There is an argument that wins over Otto Wallin and Joe Joyce within that trio are as meaningful as anything else on his long ledger. Many of his wins have been achieved against low-rent journeyman with flimsy records who boast little future of note and even less of a past. In truth, much of his repute is built on performances in defeat.
Now aged 42, Chisora has become a peculiar oddity in the British sports fan's psyche. A maverick spirit who has toyed and played with his own role in the boxing business, donned the anti-hero's cloak and the shield of the plucky underdog too, the bad-man and the loveable rogue. None of those individual parts has ever quite captured him entirely and he is more complex than the sum of all of them. Like many challenging characters in all spheres of life, his behaviour is often explained merely by name. When faced with the latest outburst, anecdote or piece of unpredictable conduct it is customarily justified or excused by, "Its just Derek".
As he wanders toward middle-age and the irrevocable obsolescence that awaits, Chisora does still sell tickets. Punters still believe in his relevance and that he is the last throw back brawler around, the last 'gun-slinger' in a division ruled by bigger, taller, faster foes and as close to a guarantee of a good old fashioned dust up as heavyweight boxing has. And so, promoters persist in that way that they do and there is always a suitor looking to stand on the shoulders of Chisora's renown to accelerate their own climb.
Only a cruel critic would try to deny his ability to entertain. In defeat, and there have been a baker’s dozen of those, he always given his all. However much of his best that was at the time.
The ghoul that lurks beneath this affection and the resulting popularity, is the damage Chisora continues to accumulate. A walk forward, brawling style and the stoutness of his chin place him firmly in harm's way. He absorbs and perseveres, rumbling on regardless of the risk or the punches that bounce and slide of his face and temples. This stubbornness is at the heart of his character and synonymous with his name. Knockout losses often catch the eye and live long in the memory of those who watch on from the safe side of the ropes but prolonged beatings over multiple rounds are more damaging for the longer term. Chisora has boxed 346 rounds so far as a professional - in fights with heavy-handed men like Oleksandr Usyk, Dillian Whyte x2, Tyson Fury x3, Joseph Parker x 2, Agit Kabayel, Vitali Klitschko and David Haye.
It is a long list of good heavyweights.
And so, to Wilder. One of the hardest single shot hitmen the division has ever seen.
Perhaps the fading Wilder can land the exclamation mark on the final sentence in Chisora's career. The 50th fight. 14th defeat. Show closed.
Except of course, Chisora will be competitive - could even win. Thats just Derek.
And he won't stop, regardless. It may have to get darker before Derek sees the light.