Derek Chisora has revealed that his wife has given him the “green light” to pursue a rematch with Deontay Wilder later this year. The British heavyweight lost to Wilder via split decision last month in an intense bout, but instead of stepping away from the ring, he is now actively working on a second fight.
At 42 years old, Chisora had previously indicated that the Wilder fight might be his final outing, but he now plans to postpone retirement. “I’m working on the rematch. The wife has given me the green light, so I will be doing the rematch,” Chisora said. “I haven’t confirmed it yet. I have a couple meetings tomorrow and we will see how that goes.”
According to Chisora, the American boxer is also eager for a second meeting. “He (Wilder) is keen because he’s upset with the result as well. Yes he might have won but he’s upset, so we are going to run it back.” Chisora added that after the potential rematch, he plans to retire. “That’s it. End of this year I will retire.”
The conversation also touched on the recent heavyweight clash between Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley, where Dubois overcame two early knockdowns to win by stoppage in the 11th round. Chisora shared his thoughts, saying, “Wardley let himself down but Daniel came in with the way of like ‘I’m here to destroy’. He walked into the ring sweating, ready to rock and roll.”
“I believe Fabio didn’t respect Daniel. Fabio hit him with everything he had but Daniel kept getting up and fighting. I would like to see the rematch again. It was a good fight. We enjoyed it, and congratulations to Daniel Dubois for having an amazing victory.”
When asked if the fight should have been stopped earlier due to the punishment Wardley took, Chisora pointed to the controversial first fight between Carl Froch and George Groves in 2013. “In boxing you don’t know. If you stop it earlier people say ‘why did you stop it early?'” he said. “We saw it with George Groves and Carl Froch (in the first fight) and George went mad, everyone went crazy.”
