On Saturday afternoon, July 26, Dereck Chisora (20-4, 13 KO’s) and Tyson Fury (22-0 16 KO’s) will do battle in a twelve round heavyweight rematch. The fight, which will be staged at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, England, will televised live and exclusively in the United States on AWE–A Wealth of Entertainment.
The two top-ten heavyweights met almost three years ago to the day (July 23, 2011) in a bout that saw Fury win a hotly contested unanimous decision. Fast forward three years and there is some serious bad blood as both Fury and Chisora have professed tremendous disdain for each other and each is vowing a knockout.
To add to the animosity, the European, British and WBO International Heavyweight titles will all be on the line. Maybe most importantly this bout is a final eliminator for the number-one spot in the WBO and gives the winner a crack at unified world Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.
“We are ecstatic to bring this five-star fight to the fans of the United States”, said AWE CEO Robert Herring. “This fight has so many story lines that range from the great first fight to two guys that really dislike each other to the belts and of course a shot at Klitschko. There will be a winner in the ring but the big winners will be the fans of the United States who will get to witness this can’t miss Heavyweight fight on AWE,”.
Chisora of London already has had a taste of a world title opportunity but he came up short when he put up a courageous effort against then-WBC champion Vitali Klitschko in 2012.
He established himself as a Heavyweight contender by winning his first thirteen bouts with wins over the like of Sam Sexton (7-0 & 13-1) plus Mike Tyson conqueror, Danny Williams (41-8). He won the British Heavyweight title with win over Williams and that put him in line to face fellow undefeated Fury.
After that great fight, Chisora took on a murderers’ row of opponents that saw Chisora lose a controversial decision to undefeated Rober Helenius (16-0). Chisora won in the court of public opinion as his performance against Helenius facilitated a shot at Klitschko. Chisora was as competitive as any recent Klitschko opponent but he dropped a unanimous decision to the longtime Ukrainian champion. In his next bout he was stopped for the only time in his career by former two-division world champion David Haye.
Chisora has been undeterred as he has won five bouts in a row against top competition. He captured the WBO International title with a 6th round stoppage over Malik Scott (35-0-1). He won the European title with a 5th round stoppage of Edmund Gerber (23-1). Dereck won the WBA International title with a 3rd-round destruction of Ondrej Pala (32-3). In his last bout he scored a 12-round unanimous decision over former world title challenger Kevin Johnson (29-4-1) on February 15.
Fury of Manchester, England has become a lightning rod for controversy and in the process, his fights have become must-see television.
The 6’9″ behemoth has been groomed to become an heir apparent in the Heavyweight division and has scored big wins over Marcel Zeller (21-3), Scott Velshaw (10-1). He won the English title with a 10-round unanimous decision over John McDermott (25-5) and then stopped him 9 rounds in the rematch.
Fury continued on a path of destruction as beat undefeated foes and quality opposition such as Rich Power (12-0), Marcelo Nascimento (13-0), Chisora (14-0), Neven Pajic (16-0), Martin Rigan (14-2), Vinny Maddalone (35-7) & Johnson (28-2-1).
Fury showed his heart and determination when he was dropped hard in the 2nd round by two-time Cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (25-5). Fury was down on the scorecards but cameback to score a 7th round stoppage in Fury’s American debut at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Fury was twice scheduled to fight Haye but the former two-division champ had to pull out both times with injuries.
That kept Fury on the sidelines for 10-months until he came back on February 15 and took out American Joey Abell (29-7) in four rounds.
