Heavyweight Derek Chisora 35-13 (23) says he would like a trilogy bout with Dillian Whyte 30-3 (20) next following his shock 10-roun unanimous decision victory over Joe ‘Juggernaut’ Joyce 16-3 (15) at the O2 Arena in London, England on Saturday night.
Whyte, 36, scored a split decision win over Chisora in 2016, and scored an 11th round knockout in their rematch two years later in what was otherwise a close fight.
“I will have a rematch with Dillian [Whyte] as long as he’s clean 100 per cent,” said Chisora. “There is no point in fighting someone who is not clean, but if he wants a rematch, I’ll give it him.”
Chisora has always said he wants to have 50 pro bouts before retiring and while he is planning his swansong, Joyce’s career is less certain.
“I don’t know yet [what’s next for Joe Joyce],” said Frank Warren, who promotes the 38-year-old Joyce. “It’s too soon for them. I said I felt the loser of this fight would have nowhere to go, but I never expected it to be a fight like this. I thought it would be competitive, but I didn’t think it would be like this in a million years.
“Every fight on the card was a contender for fight of the year but that was just something else. I can’t think of another, Tyson [Fury] and [Oleksandr] Usyk, the class that they are, that was a tremendous heavyweight fight, and this at the level.
Joyce was the busier fighter throughout the contest, but Chisora landed the sharper, more eye-catching shots. A peach of a right hand from Chisora caught Joyce coming in the ninth and sent him to the canvas, securing Chisora the victory by scores of 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94.
“I knew he was tough, but Jesus Christ, that guy is tough,” said Chisora. “I was tired and I had to dig deep because I haven’t boxed for a year. You have to understand when you train and you spar, and then when you fight it’s totally different.
“I haven’t been in the ring for a year and everything else started getting harder, but I just had to bite on my gumshield and dig deep, it was hard.
“I had to win the first five rounds because I knew I’d get two of the next five and I’d win then. That was the whole point, start fast and go with it – we had to win the first five rounds.”
Warren was full of praise for both big men.
“It was a very close fight,” the Queensberry Promotions boss said. “It flowed backwards and forwards, but amazing. You look at their ages, I don’t know how Derek does it, I don’t know how Joe does it. They did not miss each other at times, every punch that they were throwing was connecting.
“I didn’t think there was much in it, I really didn’t, coming into that knockdown. Then you know, it’s a knockdown, so a 10-8 [round]. I thought Joe was winning the round until the knockdown, and the last round [Chisora] came back strong at the end of the round – that gave him the fight by a couple of rounds.”
