Derek Chisora Digs Deep to Upend Joe Joyce in a Riveting Slugfest

In a 10-round intra-city battle between ancient heavyweight warriors, 40-year-old Derek Chisora dug deep to overcome 38-year-old Joe Joyce. The ninth frame was a Round of the Year candidate. Chisora was running on fumes and seemingly unlikely to last the distance when, in a sudden turnabout, he put Joyce on the seat of his pants with a straight right hand. In the final frame, with his legs gone and fighting with his back against the ropes, Chisora yet landed the bigger shots to cement one of the biggest wins in his 17-year career. The decision was unanimous: 97-92 and 96-94 twice. (Scoring at home off the ESPN+ livestream, this reporter had Joyce winning 95-94.)

Neither fighter had any snap to his punches, but both were heavy-handed. Joyce, who opened a 9/2 favorite, fought most of the fight off his front foot, but was repeatedly stopped in his tracks by an overhand right as he was plodding forward. At 281 pounds, the “Juggernaut” had a 25-pound weight advantage but he often smothered his own punches as he was leaning on Chisora.

Chisora, who improved to 35-13 (23), had hinted before the battle that this may be his final fight but changed his tune and said he will fight again in December in Manchester and then hopes to have a farewell fight in his native Zimbabwe. Joyce, who was back with his original trainer Ismael Salas after a one-fight hiatus, falls to 16-3 after twice meeting his kryptonite in the form of Chinese behemoth Zhilei Zhang.

Semi-windup

In a battle of unbeatens, Southampton junior lightweight Ryan Garner improved to 16-0 (9) with a 10-round unanimous decision over Archie Sharp (25-1). The judges had it 98-92 and 97-93 twice. Garner forced the action in a fight without an indelible moment.

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Moses Itauma continued his rampage up the heavyweight ladder with a second-round stoppage of flabby 44-year-old Polish trial horse Mariusz Wach. Itauma, who has been called the next Anthony Joshua, put Wach on the canvas in round two and finished the job before the round was over, pinning the Pole against the topes with a fusillade of punches that forged the stoppage at the 2:30 mark. The 19-year-old Slovakia-born southpaw, who is trained by Ben Davison, improved to 10-0 (8 KOs). He has yet to lose a round. Wach declines to 38-11.

Super bantamweight Dennis “The Menace” McCann started slow but assumed control of the fight in the middle rounds and won a comfortable decision over the rugged Romanian Ionut Baluta. This was a rematch of their crowd-pleasing rumble in August of last year, a match that ended in a technical draw after nine rounds when the ring doctor stopped the fight because of a bad gash McCann suffered two rounds earlier from an accidental clash of heads.

A member of the Irish Traveler community. McCann (16-0-1) kept his undefeated record intact. Baluta falls to 16-5-1.

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Featherweight Raven Chapman improved to 9-0 (2) with a 10-round shutout over Yohana Serabia who was making her first start outside Colombia. The oddsmakers weren’t fooled by Serabia’s 10-0 record. The Englishwoman was a 20/1 favorite.

In an 8-round contest in the super lightweight class, Brandun Lee (29-0) defeated Colombia’s Juan Anacona (11-1) by a 78-74 score. Hailing from the California high desert community of La Quinta, Lee knocked out 20 of his first 22 opponents after an amateur career in which he was reportedly 181-9.

Those in attendance included Oleksandr Usyk who is scheduled to renew hostilities were Tyson Fury on Christmas week in Saudi Arabia.

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