Chisora was ahead on the cards at the time of the stoppage.
We opened with round thirteen building off their 2016 classic. Dereck Chisora (29-9, 21 KOs) came out aggressively throwing hard, but he was countered with a sharp right hand that wobbled him into the corner. The younger fighter did not pursue the finish, however. The two men’s long standing rivalry bubbled to a head after the second round as well when Chisora needed to be pulled off Dillian Whyte (25-1, 18 KOs) at the round’s conclusion. He didn’t win either of the first two frames though.
Chisora used that intensity and aggression to come on strong in the third. He managed to spend a lot of time in a range that Dillian couldn’t really work back. While that didn’t one hundred percent hold true in the fourth and the favored, younger fighter was able to counter at range a bit, it was still the veteran pressure fighter putting his imprint on the bout with his constant forward movement.
The 34 year old just kept plowing forward in round five too. Several strong left hooks early set the tone early. While Whyte came back well at times, all too often Chisora was just able to move him to the ropes and work in big shots, especially to the body. He kept it up in a highly competitive sixth round as well. Really at this point the question of the fight seemed to be whether or not Dereck Chisora could keep up the torrid pace long enough to bank the rounds needed to win the fight.
On cue, “Del Boy” did begin to slow down in round seven. He still had his moments in the excellent bout, but at the slower pace and at range Dillian Whyte’s more precise counter shots took the round. To make matters worse for him, Chisora not only continued to lose his firm control on the fight in the eighth, but he also lost a somewhat bogus looking point on low blows. They were borderline shots at best. It was a bad call. Chisora was also wobbled right before the bell, but once again Whyte did not pursue it.
Round nine was great fun with Del Boy reasserting his aggression and activity only for Whyte to come roaring back at the end of the round with big shots of his own. Chisora controlled more of the round and won it on my card. He was too tired to take the tenth, however.
I had Dillian Whyte up one point going into the eleventh thanks to the questionable point deduction. Thankfully that wouldn’t matter at the bout’s conclusion though. Before we get there, Dereck Chisora lost another point at the beginning of the round thanks to throwing a back elbow. This one was fair in my view. It was a blatant attempt at a foul.
Again, it didn’t matter. With about a 1:20 left in the round and fight, Dillian Whyte unleashed a hellacious left hook from the corner that instantly put Dereck Chisora out cold. This was a knockout of the year level finish. It was also a bit scary for a minute. Chisora was as out as they get. He came to, however, and all seemed well.
This was another great fight between these two British heavyweights. It was almost disappointing that we got such a definitive finish as great as it was as it likely means the rivalry has reached its conclusion. Almost. We can’t ever complain about a great conclusion like this one.
