One of boxing's biggest characters says he won't box without fans during the pandemic, will fight in Bellator MMA instead
- Heavyweight boxer Dereck Chisora is temporarily leaving his sport so he can fight in Bellator MMA.
- Chisora had a high-stakes match-up against Oleksandr Usyk scheduled before the coronavirus pandemic canceled the bout.
- Rather than take the Usyk showdown to an empty venue, Chisora told Insider he is happy to postpone the bout for a few months, or even a year, so he can wait to fill London's 02 Arena again.
- While he waits, he'll put his new-found wrestling skills to good use in a Bellator cage, he said, potentially making his MMA debut in the coming months.
One of boxing's biggest characters says he won't box without fans during the pandemic, and will fight in Bellator MMA instead.
Dereck Chisora had a high-stakes heavyweight match against Oleksandr Usyk scheduled in Britain before the spread of the novel coronavirus cancelled major sports events from mid-March.
Live combat sports returned with the UFC's shows in Florida last month, and boxing is set to resume at a Las Vegas conference center in June before promoter Eddie Hearn hosts British fights in his mansion from July.
These events are behind-closed-doors as mass gatherings remain banned in multiple cities in the US and the UK, thus restricting the amount of money generated as there will be no revenue from ticket sales.
Chisora told Insider that he's happy to keep his Usyk clash postponed until fans can return to the gate and organizers can host the fight at the 20,000 capacity 02 Arena in London.
Until then, he'll test himself in Bellator MMA. "If the fight with Usyk is not going to be this year, then I'll just go do a fight in Bellator," Chisora told us.
"This is what we're looking at now; another option so we can get another fight going using Bellator MMA rules."
Chisora's entire 13-year career in professional combat sports has been spent as a boxer, accumulating a 41-fight record featuring 32 wins (23 knockouts) against nine losses, including bouts against Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury, and David Haye.
He is also riding a three-fight win streak and is poised to challenge Usyk, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion who is one of Insider's top-five talents in world boxing right now.
Competing in MMA aged 36 is an unconventional move
Abandoning that, even if temporarily, to compete in an entirely different fighting discipline — mixed martial arts — would be wildly unconventional for most fighters, let alone a 36-year-old boxer.
Chisora is a guy who sold his high-powered Bentley for a two-seater Smart car, who almost caused a riot when he tried to kiss his opponent Carl Baker at a weigh-in, and who slapped Vitali Klitschko in the face before spitting water all over his brother, Wladimir.
Unconventional is one of the things Chisora may well do best. When Chisora was a teenager he ran a company called Dereck's Association of Finchley Traders (DAFT, an acronym that spells a British word for fool).
With the help of friends, he bought Bentleys, Rolls Royces, and Daimlers at auction and sell them for profit.
Recalling the business to Insider, Chisora said: "This is time ago! When I was 18, 19 … just a young kid and I'd buy cars from the auction and sell them in the newspapers."
Over the years, Chisora became synonymous with controversial antics in boxing. He told us he didn't even know what he was doing when he kissed Baker at a head-to-head in 2010, an act that incited an aggressive response from his opponent. "I was young, naive," he said.
Only two years later, he was fined $50,000 by the World Boxing Council when he slapped Vitali Klitschko in the face just a day before their heavyweight title fight in Munich.
Moments before the fight began, he took a mouthful of water and spat it all over Klitschko's brother, Wladimir, who looked bemused before trying to lick the water off his face.
"He was fuming!" Chisora said, looking back. "He didn't know what to do … he was embarrassed."
Shortly after going 12 rounds with Vitali Klitschko, losing a decision in a spirited fight, Chisora and David Haye caused carnage at the post-fight press conference. Punches were landed, a chair was thrown in the melee, and Haye was seen hitting Chisora with a glass bottle in his hand.
The only way to settle the ruckus was with a fight at an open-air stadium in London, something Haye told Insider buried whatever bad blood they had, opening the door for Haye to become Chisora's manager when he called time on his own fighting days in 2018.
"David is a good man," Chisora said. "I was hanging out with David when I was coming up in the game. When the fight happened in West Ham, he won by knockout and that was the end of it.
"There was nothing else I could do here but respect the man. We moved on. Now, we've been getting to the highest point we can get to in my career."
Haye has guided Chisora to an MMA debut and an Usyk fight
Chisora is on a three-fight winning streak, has fought six successive times at London's marquee venue the 02 Arena, and is on the cusp of a significant heavyweight fight against Usyk.
A world title shot against Anthony Joshua could be mandated by the World Boxing Organization should he beat the Ukrainian.
"The fight with Usyk is an amazing one for me and the fans," Chisora said. "When they said, 'Usyk wants to fight you,' I said, 'You know what … I'll fight him.'
"By the time I retire, I want to say I'll fight everybody. I fought Tyson Fury, Dillian Whyte, Haye, Kubrat Pulev, it's good memories and good history for me and my family. And now I'm excited to have Usyk, too, at the 02 Arena."
Boxing in Britain returns mid-July with Hearn's elaborate plans to host four successive Saturday fight nights on the grounds of his 15-acre Matchroom headquarters, which has an indoor swimming pool, a helipad, and views of London's financial district in the distance.
Chisora praised the probable match-ups at these shows, with Whyte's fight against Alexander Povetkin likely headlining the final card in August. However, he told us he won't be boxing until fans can return to events.
"I can't fight Usyk without fans … it has to be a fight for fans to enjoy," he said.
"We can't be doing that in Eddie Hearn's mansion. We need a crowd there, 20,000 people there. Maybe we'll be back in an arena in the next couple of months."
Whether that's a couple of months or next year, Chisora said he'll transition into mixed martial arts to fight for Bellator MMA, adding it won't be uncharted territory as he's been wrestling at the prominent gym London Shootfighters.
"I know how to wrestle, things like that," he said. "I'm chuffed about doing that. Shootfighters … they've got James Haskell, they've got Michael 'Venom' Page, I'm just excited.
"For the last three years, I've been training at Shootfighters, wrestling, doing what they do.
"We'll get a fight done. It will definitely happen, mate."
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