Dereck Chisora is a British professional boxer who has held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles as well as the European Heavyweight Title. Chisora has a rough, brawling style that can bedevil more clinical boxers.
Chisora was born in Mbare, Harare before his family moved to Finchley, London in 1999.
In 2002, Chisora was involved in a street fight and was arrested for assault after knocking out a victim’s teeth. Soon after, his parole officer suggested that he take up boxing. He was trained by Joe Smyth on the fundamental aspects of boxing and had around 20 amateur fights, which included winning the 2006 ABA super heavyweight title, after defeating Tom Dallas in the final, and a gold medal at the Four Nations Championships. He turned pro in 2007.
Fighting career (so far)
Dereck Chisora won his first fight with a second round TKO against Istvan Kecskes. He won his next three fights by decision before fighting future Commonwealth Champion Sam Sexton. He won by TKO with 30 seconds left in the final round. He went onto win his first eight fights before being suspended for four months for biting Paul Butlin in their 2009 fight. This suspension caused him to miss his scheduled fight for the British title against Danny Williams.
Dereck Chisora and Williams struggled for a year to reschedule the fight before finally meeting in May 2010. Chisora won easily with a TKO in the second round, winning the British heavyweight title. In September of 2010, he defeated Sam Sexton for a second time, this time by knockout in the 9th round and gained the Commonwealth Heavyweight Title. It was in 2010 that he was found guilty of assault against his girlfriend and given a suspended 12 week prison sentence.
He received his first and second losses to Tyson Fury and in a split decision to Robert Helenius in Finland. The result was highly controversial and Helenius actually dropped in the rankings despite his victory. Despite the loss, Dereck was scheduled to fight Vitali Klitschko in Munich in February 2012. Klitschko had the height and reach advantage and used his length to keep Chisora, with his powerful, brawling style, from getting inside and landing body blows. Klitschko won the fight by unanimous decision. Chisora was arrested but not charged after a post fight press conference brawl with David Haye.
After the brawl with Haye, the British Boxing Board of Control suspended Dereck Chisora’s boxing license indefinitely under the condition that he must take anger management treatment before he would be reinstated. Despite not being reinstated, he was able to use a boxing license from another country to fight David Haye. He lost the fight by TKO after being repeatedly knocked down in the fifth round.
Chisora won his next five fights while trying to clean up his image. Gone were the pre-fight confrontations as he aimed to show more respect to his opponents. However, he lost again to Tyson Fury after he was ruled unable to continue in the tenth round. After the Fury fight, he ran off a streak of five consecutive victories. He ended 2016 with a loss to Dillian Whyte in a fight for the WBC international heavyweight title.
