by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – Last week’s 133rd edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio (brought to you by CWH Promotions) featured an exclusive interview with heavyweight contender Dereck Chisora (14-0, 9 KOs) who is scheduled to have a highly anticipated showdown against Tyson Fury (14-0, 10 KOs) on July 23 at the Wembley Arena. Chisora spoke about his upcoming fight, and also touched on a variety of other topics including the Klitschko brothers, David Haye, Tomasz Adamek, and more! Here is what he had to say:
His views on his July 23 opponent Tyson Fury:
“It’s going to be a very good scalp on my record, because he’s at 14 and I have 14 and we’re unbeaten fighters. We’re arriving at a great time in my career. The winner of that gets to go on for better to go box for a world title, and the loser of that will stay in the British ranks again and work himself back up.”
His views on Tyson Fury as a fighter and what he has accomplished so far:
“Well you know he’s, how can I put it? He’s good for publicity. They put his name out there very good which is a very good thing, but him as a fighter I haven’t seen much which I can say I’m very impressed about.”
Regarding whether the back and forth criticisms exchanged between him and Fury is for publicity or whether there is genuine dislike involved:
“I haven’t been talking anything. It’s him who’s been doing all the talking. I haven’t said any bad things in interviews about him. This ain’t no hate fight or way to sell tickets. It’s a great fight between two guys who are rising at the same time. You know it’s not the same thing as James Degale versus George Groves. When they trash talked they hated each other from when they were young kids, but I don’t hate Tyson. I think he’s a great athlete.”
To clarify on whether he believes all of the talk has been coming from Fury:
“All of the talking is on his side. He has to sell this fight. I don’t have to sell anything.”
On how he feels he will be able to cope with the superior size and reach that Tyson Fury brings to the table:
“The bigger they are the harder they fall. Tyson Fury is going down! There ain’t no two ways about it. He has to go down. From round one to round twelve we’re putting him down. He’s going down.”
On how disappointing it was to have two fights scheduled against Wladimir Klitschko which were both canceled due to injuries suffered by Klitschko:
“First of all it was a very disappointing thing, and then afterwards you could see the great results with it because David Haye wanted the fight. He wanted to convince the British public that he wanted to fight and stuff like that. Then they went in there to fight, and before the fight right away things were in shambles, anyway. They were trying to do it up like this was going to go in the history books of like Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. You know, Rumble in the Jungle and stuff like that, but it didn’t really go according to plan because one was a great athlete and the other one was just a big talker looking for money and looking for quick cash out basically. So that will never go in the history books.”
His views on the efforts put forth by David Haye in his unification bout against Wladimir Klitschko:
“You know most people are saying they are very disappointed in David Haye because he didn’t stand there in the ring and take his beating like a man. He had to blame it on something else, but you know he’s all big talk and by the sound of it HBO are not happy with his words.”
Regarding all of the disappointed fans who were hoping Klitschko-Haye would bring the heavyweight division back under a bigger spotlight:
“Well those fans were disappointed because this guy sold us the fight saying he was going to do something, but we know in boxing history. If you’re a fighter, Wladimir said he was going to come out and he was going to try and fight David Haye, which that’s not the way. Wladimir has never come out and tried to fight his opponent. He’s never done that before. David Haye has never come out like he’s going to a fight. You know he’s never done that before. We know fighters from the moment they start fighting. If they have a routine they’re always going to stay with that routine. Wladimir works on his jab so he weakens his opponent for after. With David Haye he looks to go on the back foot and catch the guy with right overhand every time. But when they said they were going to fight they were talking a load of dog. It wasn’t going to happen that way. I knew they were going to fight the same way the always fight previously. One will be using his jab and one will be moving back trying to get a counterpunch, and I knew it was going to be a boring fight.”
Whether he believes the fight between him and Tyson Fury will bring the type of fireworks fans were hoping for in the Klitschko-Haye fight:
“Yeah we’re going to provide fireworks! I always provide fireworks! I don’t go to a fight and try and blame it on something else. I’m definitely bringing fireworks.”
On whether he believes Wladimir Klitschko suffered a legitimate injury the second time he pulled out of a scheduled fight:
“If the champ had an injury, he had an injury. If he was faking, he was faking. Put it this way, we will never know. We will never know. The same with certain things with life, we will never know.”
On whether he believes he has unfinished business with Wladimir Klitschko:
“Oh yeah! There is unfinished business we have.”
On whether pursuing a fight with Wladimir Klitschko is his top priority should he beat Tyson Fury:
“I’ll pursue any fight because you need to understand, I’m going to have 21 fights and after 21 fights I’m gone. So I’m here for the next 7 fights. Seven fights and I’m gone.”
Regarding some of the negative comments Tyson Fury has stated about him:
“Well that’s good for him. That’s good for him, so he better come physically and mentally prepared for this fight.”
On what he believes is his biggest advantage going into the fight with Tyson Fury:
“Oh, you will see! Whether you watch the fight on the internet or you’re going to watch on channel 5, you will see it on that night.”
On what he hopes the American fans will see for him given the fact this fight will be available on a pay-per-view basis in the US markets:
“American fans, if they haven’t seen me fight, after they watch me I think they’re going to love it because I bring excitement to this sport. I don’t bring boredom. You don’t yawn when you watch my fights. You don’t sit down. You’re always up on your feet. You never know what’s going to happen.”
On whether he thinks he will be a better representative for British boxers than David Haye was for the American audience:
“Oh yeah! You know me and Tyson have to redeem from this big fight. It’s been awhile since that type of a big fight. The last time they had the type of fight like this was Mayweather and Ricky Hatton. It died down for a bit and then finally David Haye and Klitschko hyped one up, and then they didn’t produce what they were supposed to produce. So me and this Tyson guy have to do it.”
Regarding which young heavyweight prospect/contenders most impress him right now:
“Well you need to understand these top contenders out there are not contenders. This is what people realize to forget. These eastern European fighters are built on records. You know they got 69 knockouts, but really, truly they haven’t boxed any fighters. You can have 69 knockouts if you’re boxing a drunk guy who’s coming out of a pub who’s getting paid for another win on your knockout so you can knock him out. Then people are like yeah he’s got 65 knockouts! He’s a good fighter! No! Boxing in Europe is good in different situations, because in Europe they give you nobody and then your last two fights before you retire they give you somebody to fight. When you say oh this name, of this Alexander Povetkin and stuff like that, those people don’t amaze me because they’re not great athletes. It’s just only that they’re shielded by the money. They bring in more money if they are winning. So he is not an athlete in my eyes or all those guys. I’ll beat those guys any day because I’m a better athlete. I always say to my manager Frank Warren, I want to fight these guys for me to be one of the best heavyweights out there. But when we send requests to them and ask them to fight, they don’t want to fight because they know they’re not ready to go on the bigger stage.”
His views on the fight between Vitali Klitschko and Tomasz Adamek and whether he believes Adamek has a realistic chance of winning:
“Adamek hasn’t got any chance! He doesn’t have any chance in hell! He’s a small fighter and he’s trying to use speed, but we know that you can only use speed for so many rounds until you get hit by a heavyweight and it’s goodnight. The same as David Haye, you know. David Haye came in trying to use speed, until he got hit by one jab and he realized that these guys can hit. He realized he’s not in the same league so he had to survive. He didn’t want to go out look like a punk, but he did. Knowing his older brother, his older brother can hit. He hits very, very hard. Adamek has never been hit before by anyone hits very hard like his older brother.”
His views on the best way to go about beating the Klitschko brothers:
“How you beat the Klitschkos is forget about using power. You would have to come in the ring 100% fit. When we were boxing the Klitschkos we were running everyday because with the Klitschkos you have to go in there knowing you’re going to get hit and when you deliver a punch you have to deliver a devastating punch to knock them out. But most of these fighters don’t realize that. You have to make them work. You have to be so tired and they have to be so tired that those runs you put in will help you come out on top.”
His views on whether Tyson Fury does anything inside the ring that he believes will present him with problems:
“I don’t watch my opponents to be honest with you. I never watch my opponents. I just go in there and fight. It’s different with each fight. If he’s training right now and watching my fight with Sam Sexton that means he’s training for the wrong fight because Sam Sexton is a different opponent. I don’t go watching him fighting a cab driver who he knocked out in the fourth round. I don’t do that.”
On whether he feels he will have any ring rust given his long absence from the ring:
“No, not at all.”
His official prediction for his upcoming fight with Tyson Fury:
“Put it this way, it ain’t going to the scorecards. It’s not going to points. This one I’ll drag on until the 9th round.”
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For those interested in listening to the Dereck Chisora interview in its entirety, it begins approximately one hour and thirteen minutes into the program.
RIGHT CLICK and ‘SAVE AS’ TO DOWNLOAD EPISODE #133
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