DEREK CHISORA vs SAM SEXTON

At one time a British heavyweight championship fight was a huge event in the U.K., splashed across the sports pages. Those days are long gone, but Derek Chisora’s rematch with Sam Sexton has fired the imagination of British fans. Chisora will be defending his British heavyweight title and attempting to take Sexton’s Commonwealth championship in what should be a compelling contest on promoter Frank Warren’s Magnificent Seven show in Birmingham (TV coverage on Sky Box Office).
 
The first fight between Chisora and Sexton two years ago was hard fought and exciting. Chisora looked the stronger fighter that night at York Hall in east London and he was letting his hands go and overwhelming Sexton towards the end of the six-rounder. The referee intervened with just 26 seconds left in the fight as Sexton wobbled under Chisora’s onslaught.
 
Sexton, from Norwich in eastern England, is a stronger-looking fighter now than he was two years ago and he has improved technically. Indeed, Sexton says that he has improved so much that there is no way Chisora can beat him.
 
“I’ve come on so much since then,” Sexton told BBC Radio Norfolk when discussing the first fight with Chisora. He said he was still boxing like an amateur two years ago but now his style is quite different and he is “stronger and fitter”.
 
Sexton has won six fights in a row since losing to Chisora, winning the Prizefighter heavyweight tournament and twice stopping Martin Rogan on his opponent’s home ground in Belfast. In the first fight with Rogan, though, Sexton was wobbly and on the verge of being halted in the eighth round before Rogan’s badly swollen left eye brought the fight to an end.
 
Chisora has been looking classy and punching hard in his last few fights, all of which ended inside three rounds. He wasn’t remotely tested in these bouts, and his win over Danny Williams was something of a farce, with the veteran British champion falling apart as soon as he got hit. Indeed, to use the harsh boxing term, Williams looked “totally shot”.
 
Looking through Chisora’s record, it appears he hasn’t had anything approaching a difficult fight since his first bout with Sexton. He probably hasn’t lost a round since that fight, although he did have a point deducted for hitting on the break against the trial horse Paul Butlin.  
 
There have been a couple of incidents that cast doubt on just how serious Chisora is about his boxing career. He was suspended for five months and fined £2,500 by the British Boxing Board for biting Paul Butlin on the ear and he subsequently caused a stir by kissing his opponent, Carl Baker, on the lips at the weigh-in. In an interview last month with British tabloid The Sun, Chisora bragged about a sideline selling luxury cars and said he doesn’t have to box to make a living.
 
One gets the impression that Chisora might have too high an opinion of his ability. He has been winning easily whereas Sexton has come through several tough fights. Sexton says he has trained as never before, pushing himself to the limit. Chisora attended a movie premiere where he met Sylvester Stallone. Could Sexton simply, as they say in the trade, “want it more” than Chisora?
 
Chisora was an ABA (English national) champion in the amateurs but Sexton had the greater international experience as an amateur. Each has promised to win by knockout.
 
I view Chisora — a north Londoner who was born in Zimbabwe, Africa — as the more talented of the two men and the better puncher, but he could be outworked, outlasted and outgamed by a very determined Sexton, who pulled out of what now looks to have been a sure-win fight against Danny Williams earlier this year to stay close by his mother when she was recovering from a brain aneurysm — anyone who is this supportive of his mother gets top marks in my book. (Chisora, of course, replaced Sexton and blew Williams away.)
 
I am tempted to go for the upset, but an article in Boxing Monthly by the British reporter Steve Lillis gave me pause. Lillis wrote: “One leading British fighter who has sparred with both recently told me that Chisora will beat Sexton more easily this time.”
 
Lillis also wrote, though, that in Britain “there are plenty” tipping Sexton to win.
 
This is clearly a fight where anything can happen. I will stay with my original thoughts and go with Chisora to win but, really, who knows?
 
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