Whyte defeats Chisora in epic
Dillian Whyte stopped Dereck Chisora in the 11th round of a bruising, pulsating all-British heavyweight bout at the 02 Arena in London yesterday to make a claim to be Anthony Joshua’s next challenger.
A largely competitive fight was instantly ended when Whyte threw a powerful left hook that left Chisora unconscious and down for worryingly long.
Chisora landed heavily on his head but recovered after attention from his team, leaving him facing possible retirement at the end of a tough career.
Whyte beat Chisora on a split decision in 2016, but there was no disputing the result this time.
‘‘I hurt him in the first round and I wanted to go after him but I knew I had to take my time,’’ said Whyte. ‘‘I worked the right hand, rattled him. He kept making the same mistake . . . boom. That money shot is going to put a lot of people away.’’
Chisora was one round away from winning a split decision on the judges’ card when he was knocked out; he led on the cards of two of the three judges but left his jaw exposed and Whyte took advantage.
Whyte improved his record to 25-1 with 18 knockouts. The one loss was against Joshua in 2015 when both were on the rise.
Whyte made the faster start, scoring points in the early rounds with some big rights that Chisora certainly felt. As he did in his win against Joseph Parker in July, he roughed up Chisora early and used his long jab well.
Chisora fought back toward the end of the first half of the fight, throwing some big lefts of his own and dragging Whyte into a scrap in the knowledge he had a better chance of prevailing in a slugfest. Both men kept swinging but Whyte got his jab going again and began avoiding the body shots that Chisora had been landing.
Chisora got pinged for a low blow in the eighth round, losing a point as Whyte started to reassert his dominance, with the pace of the fight appearing to get to Chisora who continued to try to turn the fight into a slug fest while Whyte sat behind his jab.
Another point deduction followed for Chisora in the 11th round before Whyte landed the knockout blow moments after.
Whyte is eyeing a title shot against Joshua in March or April and made no secret of his desire to fight him. Joshua has gone on to own the WBA, IBF and WBO titles, and his priority next year is lining up fights against WBC champion Deontay Wilder or former world champion Tyson Fury.
That makes a potential WhyteParker rematch a possibility.