Derek Chisora and Otto Wallin sit down for face-to-face meeting ahead of Chisora’s farewell bout.
Leading into the Feb. 8 heavyweight fight between Derek Chisora and Otto Wallin, both fighters sat down for a face-to-face conversation on behalf of Queensberry’s Locked In segment. If you’re at all familiar with Chisora, who intends this to be his last hurrah, this went as well as you can pretty much expect. Here’s some highlights from their talk.
Chisora on heading into his last professional fight
“Very emotional. Sad. You know, what goes up must come down. I remember the day I won the ABAs, it was at Wembley. And then I remember when I turn pro…I was selling tickets but I wasn’t selling enough tickets. When it came to a choice I was like ‘I’d rather be hated, when they hate me they’ll pay to watch me’ and that was it.
“I cannot say I got any regrets, no. Been so amazing.”
Chisora on his thoughts about Wallin
“He’s a good fighter but he lacks one thing, though. He hasn’t got a heart. They all don’t have the heart…You’re a big guy but you haven’t got it…you ain’t got the dog in you, mate, the animal in you.”
Wallin on saying he doesn’t personally like Chisora
“He’s friends with (Anthony) Joshua, he’s just trying to rile me up backstage (in Saudi Arabia) a little bit. He did it to Joseph Parker at the press conference in London too and I felt it was disrespectful.
“I feel like, me, I’m always just trying to be myself and not trying to worry so much about other people.”
Chisora’s response
“I’m myself everyday. I’m a dickhead. I do what I want, when I want, and I just do whatever I want. That’s me being myself.
“I did tell you, you got upset, and I apologize for that. Will you shake my hand?” Chisora asked, who then pulled his hand away to taunt Wallin. “F-ck off.”
Read the full article here
