British heavyweight warhorse Derek Chisora has his own next fight set, this against Joe Joyce, who lost twice to Chinese puncher Zhilei Zhang. Zhang was the last man to defeat Joyce, in fact the 41 year old southpaw is the only man to have derailed “The Juggernaut” at pro level. Zhang next faces Deontay Wilder, this on June 1, and Chisora made no bones about what he feels will happen when Zhang and Wilder collide in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Speaking with members of the media at his press conference for the Joyce fight, Chisora made a firm pre-fight pick:
“Wilder is going to get laid out,” Chisora said yesterday, this to Seconds Out. “Wilder gets laid out and is retiring right then and there.”
It seems all fans are in agreement when it comes to the Wilder Vs. Zhang fight ending via KO, maybe a very violent KO. But it could so easily be Zhang who gets laid out. This of course is what makes the fight, the potential explosion, so fascinating and must-see. Chisora is very likely picking Zhang to lay out Wilder due to the shuddering power “Big Bang” showed in his two crushing stoppage wins over Joyce, the short and sweet return fight really seeing Zhang display brutal punching power.
And there seems to be a great chance that, if Zhang lands those type of bombs on Wilder’s chin, Wilder will fall. But who has the faster hands, Wilder or Zhang, and who will land first? The June fight really could come down to who lands first gets the victory. It promises to be ‘don’t-blink’ stuff a week on Saturday. It would be a shame if Wilder were flattened and he then retired from the sport. Say what you want about Wilder, but he sure added some drama as well as a whole lot of excitement to the heavyweight division due to his chilling punching ability.
But a loss to Zhang would leave Wilder with nowhere to go apart from into either retirement or trial-horse status, and the latter would really be something sad to see. Wilder will be fighting for his career against Zhang, and vice-versa, and this is what makes the fight such a highlight during this, a time of real highlights as far as big fights being made.
As for Chisora, maybe he will find himself getting laid out by Joyce when he fights him on July 27th, and if so, maybe “War” will retire immediately afterwards himself. Could we end up waving goodbye to two very popular, immensely entertaining and, in their own way, most likeable heavyweights this summer?
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