Sporting a combined age of 82, heavyweight veterans Deontay Wilder and Derek Chisora get the spotlight in Greenwich this Saturday when they collide at the O2.
Bad Left Hook will have LIVE coverage of the card starting at 1:00 pm ET.
Wilder (44-4-1, 43 KO) snapped a 1-4 skid last June with a rout of Tyrell Herndon, which marked just his second victory since 2019. Chisora (36-13, 23 KO) finds himself on a rare three-fight win streak, which has seen him topple Gerald Washington, Joe Joyce, and most recently
Otto Wallin.
Does Wilder have one more bomb left in the bay, or will Old Man Chisora continue his geriatric rampage through the UK countryside?
Who will win Wilder vs Chisora?
Look, I’ll do my best to justify it and you’re welcome to tell me I’m full of it, but I just feel a Wilder KO in my bones.
The kicker for me is pacing. I don’t see Chisora getting Wilder out of there early; he’s landed a couple solid knockdowns in recent efforts, including that big one against Joyce, but his last stoppage win came in 2019 and Wilder’s a tough nut to crack when you’re not packing cannons like Zhilei Zhang. That means 12 rounds of the “don’t get hit by the incredibly obvious punch” game, which is admittedly winnable. Joseph Parker did it, after all.
Thing is, Chisora is nowhere near as measured and considerate in his approach as Parker. He’s only truly effective at point blank range and he knows it; as a result, he’ll stomp the gas early and can subsequently lose evasiveness down the stretch, while Wilder’s economical approach generally allows his power to carry late.
That’s assuming he actually lets that power go, of course, but while I may be putting too much stock in an obvious get-well victory. I did like Wilder’s activity against Herndon. He was plenty willing to let the right hand go and, more importantly, kept his jab in Herndon’s face instead of just waiting for an opportunity to throw a home run. I’m not convinced he’ll freeze up the way he did against Parker, especially not against someone so eager to throw himself into the firing line.
Chisora should get off to his usual roaring start, but Wilder figures to outlast the surge and capitalize when Chisora’s defense starts to fail him.
Prediction: Wilder by seventh-round KO
