DEREK Chisora showed there is still life in the old dog, defeating ‘Juggernaut’ Joe Joyce on points in the O2 Arena. It wasn’t always pretty, but the crowd enjoyed every last second of a brutal brawl that saw an exhausted Chisora get his hand raised at the conclusion.
The judges handed in scores of 96-94 (twice, for Mark Bates and Victor Loughlin). Kieran McCann had it wider at 97-92.
Both men seemed slow in the opener, as Chisora targeted the body and looked to get physical before appearing briefly wobbled at the conclusion.
Derek returned downstairs in the second. That same hunting ground was once fruitful for Bryant Jennings. Chisora was blowing hard at the close of the third, as Joyce took advantage of openings for the hooks and uppercut.
In round four, Joyce used his extra weight to push Chisora to the ropes as ‘Del Boy’ looked to launch the left hook. Joe’s strong left jab had been mostly absent thus far. It returned more in the fifth, a round that fired into life in the final 40 seconds.
Referee Kevin Parker started the sixth by telling the pair off for some “afters.” Once the round got going, it was another messy affair, won by Chisora’s looping swings that Joyce could not evade.
The close of round seven was a wildly exciting slog. Derek once again retreated to the ropes, shipping uppercuts and landing bombs.
Round eight saw Chisora hurt and running on fumes as he staggered back to his corner and slumped wearily onto his stool. Had the road finally run out for the old warrior of UK boxing?
The ninth session was bizarre, as Chisora took a momentary break from getting beaten up to drop Joyce with a crunching counter right hand.
Round 10 and Chisora wandered around the ropes, waiting for Joyce to commit so he could land the big haymakers. Even Oleksandr Usyk stood to give the big men a round of applause.
“Joe was a good fighter. I’m not retiring,” clarified Chisora, after his win was confirmed. “Shout out to London!”
Chisora thanked promoter Frank Warren and credited the late Dean Powell.
Joe Joyce seemed pretty happy with this night’s work, communicating directly with the London crowd: “Do you want to see more of me? I’m still fresh.”
The undercard threw up some interesting outcomes. In a battle of unbeatens, Ryan Garner handed Archie Sharp his first pro loss. Sharp was badly cut and conceded a unanimous decision after 10 rounds.
Moses Itauma sent out a powerful statement to any heavyweight rivals by stopping Mariusz Wach in round two.
Dennis McCann comprehensively outpointed Ionut Baluta over 12 rounds to move on with his career and put to bed the ignominy of their first meeting.
Royston Barney-Smith battled through a nasty cut to defeat Brian Barajas over eight rounds.
Sean Noakes picked up the English welterweight title with a points victory over Inder Bassi following a competitive domestic scrap over 10 rounds.
Aadam Hamed opened the televised portion with a dominant 40-36 victory over defensive Bulgarian Georgi Velichkov.
Raven Chapman picked up the WBC International featherweight title with a 10-round points decision over Yohana Sarabia.
Brandun Lee went the full eight rounds on his Queensberry debut, widely outpointing Juan Anacona.
Umar Khan defeated Kaddour Hmiani on points over eight rounds.
Jermaine Dhliwayo won his debut over four rounds against Engel Gomez.