Wilder vs Chisora: ‘Del Boy’ aims to detonate ‘The Bronze Bomber’

Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder meets the outrageous Derek Chisora this Saturday, April 4 at the O2 Arena in London. This heavyweight 12-rounder is purported to be the last fight for ‘Del Boy’. DAZN will screen the event live with an undercard featuring world-ranked middleweight Denzel Bentley and popular cruiserweight contender Viddal Riley.

Read on for my Wilder vs Chisora predictions ahead of this throwback scrap.

Wilder vs Chisora Odds

Deontay may be a former world champion, but he lags behind the in-form Chisora in the markets. ‘The Bronze Bomber’ is 13/8 to get the job done while old ‘Del Boy’ is your 8/15 favourite. The draw is priced at 18/1.

Wilder vs Chisora Fight Preview

I like this fight. Both men are past their best, but in a wonderfully parallel way that makes them fighting each other make sense. Tyson Fury took something from Wilder during their chaotic and exhilarating trilogy that the proud Alabamian will never get back. Chisora has taken more punches than a dusty Everlast heavy bag. 

These aren’t the men that will one day unseat lineal heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk or even the winner of the upcoming WBO title scrap pitting champion Fabio Wardley against Daniel Dubois. But they are big names and big personalities who deserve one last payday after all they have given us.

This fight is a throwback in every sense of the word. Chisora is the only heavyweight in any of the sanctioning body world rankings to have fought Vitali Klitschko or David Haye. He is old enough to share an opponent in common with Mike Tyson. While the ‘Iron’ one fell to Danny Williams in 2004, ‘War’ Chisora stopped him in two rounds in 2010.

Wilder is best summed-up by nostalgia these days too. ‘The Bronze Bomber’ was the last American to wear one of the four major heavyweight world titles. He’s been around so long that his breakout performance was a knockout over Sydney 2000 gold medalist Audley Harrison. 

Beyond just making them both sound old, these achievements and tidbits illustrate one thing; the fact that neither man’s career will be broken by a defeat here. No matter how the Ray Winstone-voiced hype packages do a spine-tingling job of making it feel that way.

Wilder has won 10 world title fights in his career, the ninth-most of any heavyweight in history. His WBC reign is the 13th-longest heavyweight championship reign. Whatever Chisora does to this man, nobody is wiping Wilder from existence. 

Meanwhile, Chisora has never been defined by wins and losses. Even in the hyper-critical social media era, where boxers are savages for every loss, ‘Del Boy’ has been beaten 13 times in his 49-contest career. Yet, the middle-aged warrior is still packing out arenas. That is because whether it was Klitschko, Haye, Fury, Joseph Parker, Dillian Whyte, Agit Kabayel or Carlos Takam; Chisora has always fought the toughest around.

You’d never mistake Chisora as being the best fighter of the two or three heavyweight eras his career spans. But you could make a rock-solid argument he was the bravest heavyweight going.

Taking this fight is brave, too. Wilder is a sapped force, as evidenced by the ease with which Parker and Zhilei Zhang dealt with him in recent years. But he still hits like a freight train. Wilder has the second-highest knockout percentage in heavyweight title fights below only Rocky Marciano. Wilder isn’t the boxer of old, but then he never was much of a boxer. If he hits you, you’re gone. Unless you’re Tyson Fury and his Undertaker antics, of course.

Chisora has never subscribed to the ‘hit and don’t get hit’ school of boxing. They don’t call this cat ‘War’ for nothing. So, unlike when he was picked off by Parker, Wilder will get chances to show his power. That usually ends with a stoppage.

But Chisora has done some of his best work in the years since many, myself included, implored him to retire after a second brutal loss to Parker. Since that Christmas 2021 encounter, Chisora is 4-1. His only defeat came to Fury in a WBC title clash. Derek has beaten Kubrat Pulev, Gerald Washington, Joe Joyce and Otto Wallin. Not exactly the cast of Champions Forever, but each one has been a world-ranked contender at one point or another. 

This is a battle of form against function. Chisora is the boxer with his tail up, enjoying a career victory lap nobody anticipated. But Wilder wields power unseen since Messrs Foreman and Frazier stalked this division. No matter the ages and career stages, this fight sells itself.

Wilder vs Chisora Full Card

Deontay Wilder vs Derek Chisora

Viddal Riley vs Mateusz Masternak

Denzel Bentley vs Endry Saavedra

Ashton Sylve vs Raul Antonio Galaviz Hernandez

Matty Harris vs Franklin Ignatius

Amir Anderson vs Jordan Dujon

Jermaine Dhliwayo vs Jake Morgan

Dan Toward vs Misael Da Veiga

Abner Teixeira vs TBA

Tom Welland vs Yahir Alexander Solorio Morales

Wilder vs Chisora Prediction

Chisora has eased into the role of awkward veteran like an old pair of slippers. He knows all the tricks, as proven by the way he frustrated a weary Joyce and a baffled Wallin. Like other wily veterans Bernard Hopkins and ‘The Old Mongoose’ Archie Moore, Chisora will use every trick in the book to make Wilder regret his life choices.

I reckon Wilder does buzz ‘Del Boy’ at one point. But his reluctant, piecemeal displays against Zhang and Parker told me all I need to know. You don’t beat Derek Chisora with ones and twos. I think the Brit rides the lightning and comes out a points winner at 11/4.

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