Tyson Fury & Dereck Chisora RETURN – Boxing PPV Heavyweight Doubleheader – BOXING NEWS
By Geno McGahee
In a few hours, one of the few heavyweights that brings the X factor, Tyson Fury, 21-0, 15 KO’s, gets back into the ring against Joey Abell, 29-7, 28 KO’s, in a ten round contest. In the co-main event, another heavyweight that has made some waves with his personality, Dereck Chisora, 19-4, 13 KO’s, takes on Kevin Johnson, 29-4-1, 14 KO’s, in a 12 round bout.
Fury has been on the shelf for a while. A showdown with David Haye fell through twice due to Haye’s lack of ambition to fight him. Haye cited injury, but he has never done well against big heavyweights and would have most likely lost to Fury and did not want that to happen. Fury is a fighter that will fight anyone and he is getting back into the groove tonight with Joey Abell.
Abell is a huge underdog and rightfully so. His string of knockouts are over fighters like Marcus Rhode who had a record of 34-36-2, Derek Amos with a 15-26 record, and Larry White with a 3-6 record. Abell has actually lost to a fighter with a record of 13-20-2 in Andrew Greeley and that was by knockout. When Abell stepped up, he lost badly. Chris Arreola starched him in one round, Kubrat Pulev stopped him in five and an ancient Fres Oquendo knocked him out in nine. He comes in with a puncher’s chance against Fury. If Abell blitzes and goes for a quick knockout, he may find the mark on a rusty and heavier Fury, but the safe money is on the big Brit.
Dereck Chisora got a lot of attention for his disrespect of the Klitschko brothers. He slapped Vitali across the face at a press conference and then spat water in Wladimir’s face. He would do rather well in his title attempt against the elder Klitschko, losing a decision but giving Vitali some trouble along the way. He is currently on a four fight winning streak against decent opposition and all of it was by knockout. He has fought his way back into the top of the rankings after a knockout loss to David Haye and looks to be the first man to knock out Kevin Johnson tonight.
Johnson is an underachiever and it appears to be by choice. He is afraid to open up when he is facing a fighter of note and becomes the walking dead in the ring. He had a title shot against Vitali Klitschko and played defense the entire time. He did the same thing against Tyson Fury. He has gone 3-3 in his last six fights and will make this fight with Chisora a stinker if he gets the chance. Chisora will look to extend his knockout winning streak and press Johnson.
Fury should walk away with a very early knockout tonight against the overmatched Abell and Chisora should get the expected decision win, taking every round along the way from the timid Johnson. If there’s a chance for an upset, it would be in the Chisora fight. Johnson has proven that when he’s on, he can be good and if he can overcome his own mentality, then he may take the fight, but it’s quite a longshot. Chisora’s aggression should shut down any thoughts of victory from Johnson.
As the Klitschkos ride off into the sunset, these two heavyweights could be a big part of the future of boxing. Tonight is a step in that direction.