Deontay Wilder takes control in the second half of the fight and secures a deserved points win over Derek Chisora in London.
American heavyweight Deontay Wilder breathed new life into his career by defeating Derek Chisora by split decision on points tonight at the sold-out O2 Arena in London.
After a hard-fought and tense twelve rounds, the judges scored the fight 115-111 and 115-113 for Wilder and 115-112 for Chisora.
Wilder (45-4-1, 43 knockouts) secured back-to-back wins for the first time since his victories over Dominic Breazeale and Luis Ortiz in 2019. Chisora (36-14, 23 knockouts), on the other hand, suffered his first defeat in four fights and will also lose his second place in the IBF world rankings in the race for Oleksandr Usyk’s world title.
It was an extremely difficult evening for the referee, as both fighters had no interest in keeping the fight technically clean. Chisora was knocked down in rounds eight and eleven, while Wilder was deducted a point in round eight for pushing. Wilder also went down in the eleventh round, but this was judged to be the result of a push.
The right man ultimately prevailed on the scorecards, as Wilder took control in the second half of the fight and was able to neutralize Chisora’s early offense.
The fight was widely marketed in advance as Chisora’s last professional appearance, but in the post-fight interview on DAZN he merely stated: “I’m going to go home and watch the fight.” An official retirement of the English crowd favorite thus failed to materialize.