Former British Heavyweight Champion Dereck "The Hitter Spitter" Chisora took on Kazakhstan-born German Edmund Gerber in a battler for the European Heavyweight Title released by Kubrat Pulev, live on BoxNation Saturday. Here is how I saw the official TKO5 win for Chisora:
In round one, Dereck Chisora dedicates himself to body shots and right uppercuts in this round and Gerber, a solid fighter but out of his comfort zone, is forced to take whatever body shots Dereck has to offer. That's it. He's got nothing to prevent them in a phone booth. Chisora takes the round.
In round two, Gerber is trying to hang in there with Chisora but it's Chisora's fight all the way, at his preferred range and pace as he fires constant left hook, right hook combos to the body and left hook to the body, right uppercut to the head combinations. Two rounds in the bag for Chisora, here.
In round three, despite an oddly unChisoralike bit of jabbing from Dereck early, he stands most of the round in front of a flat-footed Gerber, bashing him with hooks on the inside, both sides, head and body, as Gerber shows that he owns a pair of earmuffs and little else this round. Gerber goes to his corner, nose bloody. Chisora has three rounds in the bag.
In round four, the referee cautions Dereck to keep his punches up after a pair of hooks he seems to think need a warning. About half way through the round, Gerber pulls back and shoots a sharp, stinging right hand on Chisora's button and Chisora skips back, lighter on his feet than he ever normally looks, but doesn't seem to be panicking so much as saying ''Look at me dance, you clocked me, but I'm just fine." Gerber walks after him and Chisora, having danced back into a corner lifts his hands up to the sky to show he's ready, seemingly, and perfectly lucid and balanced, but as Gerber arrives, he dances laterally almost the full way around the ring with his hands down. Why? It's Dereck Chisora. You'd have better luck figuring out a Rubik's cube while suffering from a major stroke.
Gerber walks over and clocks him with another right hand. Dereck still puts his hands down, looking more as a matter of machismo than helplessness, yet continues to lazily dance away. He shuffles and shuffles as Gerber stalks him and he even raises his hands again, though he's not fighting. Why? It's Dereck Chisora. You might as well ask Miley Cyrus about Goldbach's Conjecture. I don't know. Finally, Chisora decides to try and go back to work before the round ends but Gerber is now fighting with him and far more confident, understandably, than any time in the previous three rounds. This is his round, of course. 3 rounds to 1, Chisora leading, but with a look for the tide to have turned.
In round five, it's a sluggish, mauling, grappling round in the first half. The second half saw Chisora step it up predatorily, back to his left hook, right hook pattern, clubbing Gerber back into the corner. Chisora engages him again and Gerber throws one missed, wild right hand over his head and Chisora cuffs him with another left and right hook, and in what I found to be an unsatisfyingly quick call, referee Guido Cavalleri decided that it was his duty to stop the fight right here.
Admittedly, Chisora was looking as though he thought he was close to putting Gerber away and he very well may have been. That said, to me, it was without any tellingly dramatic reaction from Gerber calling for it and there were only seconds left in the round. Being a referee is a mostly thankless job and I'm not about to call referee Cavalleri into question over this, but I'll remark once more that I felt it was quick and plenty of fans have voiced that opinion across the Internet community as well. No good fan wants to see a helpless fighter getting punched, but none want to see someone unproven as being helpless getting their shot at a victory snatched from them when they have a good chance either. I call it early but it's in the books now and though I may have missed it, I did not see Gerber causing a fuss, so I am not too concerned if he wasn't.
None of this is to take away from Dereck Chisora putting in a good performance in winning the same title, the European Heavyweight Title, held by the last three men who would go on to be Ring Heavyweight Champion of the World, the universally regarded top man, ABC organisations being damned. Congratulations to Dereck Chisora. He's one of the best inside fighting heavies around at the moment and a very brave fighter who I want to see again soon. He's looking to be around a while too, causing a rumpus wherever he will be, undoubtedly.
Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing
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