As fans may have heard, there is, worryingly, some talk of British legend Derek Chisora landing a fight with current IBF heavyweight champ Daniel Dubois, this in his 50th and out fight. Chisora will box one more time, he says, and he wants to go out in style. Having beaten Otto Wallin last time out, in an IBF eliminator, Chisora could, amazingly, get a shot at Dubois.
Dubois, who said recently that the fight he wants is one with Joseph Parker – the two were of course to fight a short time ago, with Dubois having to pull out due to suffering from a virus – also said he will be fighting again in July, and that he “don’t really care” who it’s against. Heavyweight ruler Oleksandr Usyk is interested in running it back with Dubois, this in what could be the Ukrainian’s penultimate fight.
But there is a chance, again, quite worryingly, that Chisora, at age 41, could fight Dubois this summer. One man who doesn’t want to see it, and in being against the fight, he no doubt joins many fans who would fear for Chisora’s health should he fight the brutal-punching Dubois, is trainer Don Turner.
Tuner, who worked with Chisora for a long time, and gives Derek immense credit for getting him into the sport in a big way, now trains Dubois. And this potential conflict of interest troubles Charles in a big way. Charles spoke with Talk Sport, and he said he would not want to have to be in the opposite corner from his friend/former charge while working with Dubois.
“I wouldn’t like to see this fight for a lot of reasons,” Charles said of a possible Dubois-Chisora fight. “Firstly, because of his age, there is a lot of mileage on the clock to face off with a human being who is in his physical prime. I wouldn’t want to see that for Derek; he has 49 fights, and I have trained him for 38 of them. I wouldn’t want to see it for health reasons, but in my other heart, Derek deserves a good send-off… a big-money fight, and he entertains the fans and is a crowd favorite. I wouldn’t want to see that because I’m emotionally connected to Derek. It wouldn’t be good for me to be in the opposite corner with Daniel.”
Charles is of course a guy to agree with here, in full. That said, and business being business, Charles said that if the fight was ordered, he would be a “professional.”
“I’m not the governing body who commissioned it, I’m just a trainer and caught in the middle,” he said.
It would be awful for Charles – and for so many Chisora fans – if Dubois did fight Chisora and hurt him badly. This scenario is one most people do envisage with regard to this possibility of a fight, though. We don’t want to see it, the same way Don Charles doesn’t want to see it.
Yes, Chisora deserves a big send-off with regard to his goodbye fight. But not in a fight he would basically have no chance of winning; instead, a fight that could see the extremely likeable ring warrior get badly hurt.
Let’s hope Dubois fights either Usyk or Parker next, while Chisora, in his career finale, faces a far more realistic foe.