Whyte vs Chisora 2

For me there is always a bit of trepidation when settling down to watch a hotly anticipated rematch in boxing. For every Barrera vs Morales 2 or Gatti v Ward (I didn’t really get to watch the 4 Kings when they happened so I’ll stick with what I know!) there are 10 disappointments where the boxers know each other better and we get a much more cagey affair.

So I was pleased that I thought it was a really good fight. Not sure it quite lived up to the excitement of the first (too big of an ask?) but it was damn exciting all the same, and I think the boxing was at a much higher standard.

It just goes to show how subjective the fight game is, mind. In the first fight I would have been happy with any result on the cards. A win either way or draw would all have been, I think, hard to argue with.

In this one though? I was shocked to hear two judges had Chisora up at the end of the 10^th, as I had Whyte winning comfortably. Whilst Chisora was marauding forward and throwing lots of punches I didn’t think he was landing much cleanly and only seldom hurting Whyte. Lots landing on arms, elbows, chest and shoulders.

I thought Whyte was doing much the better work on the back foot with clean accurate and hard punches and on at least 4 or 5 occasions hurt Chisora visibly. I thought his defence was good (best I have seen from him) and his aggression controlled. I had it 6 -3 (with one drawn) at the end of the 10th and that is before the first point deduction was taken out.

Ho hum I suppose we all like different stuff in boxing. I think Whyte was clearly winning the 11^th and had the KayOh not happened I suspect he’d have got the nod on the scorecards. I am assuming with the point deduction it would have been a 10 -8 Whyte round in the 11^th and he was coming on stronger.

I must say though I thought the ref was fussy. He had warned Chisora several times, and I guess if you are getting warned but you don’t change, this is what happens. But I didn’t think the “low blow” was that low and I think the first point deduction was harsh. Not sure Dereck can complain about the elbow though, that was braindead when the ref already has the hump with you. Whyte wasn’t shy of the rough stuff either and it surprised me that he didn’t also get at least warned by the ref.

But luckily for everyone apart from Chisora and his team, Whyte was able to make the scorecards irrelevant. It was a really lovely finish. I liked very much how he feinted with his right to set up such a lovely left hook. Gave us one of the knock outs of the year (seeing how Fury managed to undertaker himself up from what would have otherwise won!).

I think Whyte has for me shown himself to be the “best of the rest” in the heavyweight division. His recent resume eclipses Ortiz, Miller and Parker so I really think he deserves his shot now.

I can’t see how the Joshua vs Wilder fight is going to happen in April; personally would love to see Whyte get a rematch against AJ. I understand from a marketing point of view AJ fighting Miller in America (and as I promotor I think that would probably be the smart move of AJ in the medium term) but from a UK fight fan perspective if AJ can’t get one of the big two then he ought to take Whyte.

AJ may be fun to watch in the ring but please can we never have AJ as a co-commentator again? He was the Michael Owen of boxing, boring platitudes delivered in a dull way, easily the worst bit of an otherwise fine night of boxing.

Now I’m off to catch up on the other fight last night; which I understand was a humdinger. Such a shame that the awful politics of the sport meant we all had to choose. Sounds like everyone lost as two excellent boxing cards got split.

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