Heavyweight rivals Dereck Chisora and Kubrat Pulev came face-to-face today to hype their upcoming July 9 return fight. As is expected from a promotion involving the always entertaining Chisora the gathered media got some useable stuff today. There was no pushing and shoving, thankfully – this we’ve seen it all before stuff so old-hat and bland these days – with both men instead showing mutual respect.
However, Chisora did ruffle Pulev’s feathers some when he made his KO prediction; this a KO Chisora “guaranteed” will take place on July 9. Chisora as we know lost the first fight with Pulev, this back in 2016, and not only that but Pulev has only been stopped twice – by Wladimir Klitschko and by Anthony Joshua. At this late stage of his career, it would be somewhat impressive if Chisora, 32-12(23) was able to flatten Pulev, 29-2(14).
“Yes, I’ll stop him,” Chisora said when asked if he can get the KO next month. “I guarantee I’ll stop him. I’m going to guarantee him a bet, if he wants to, that I’ll knock him out. Do you want to have a bet on that?”
Pulev agreed to the wager, unable to accept how any fighter can “guarantee” a knockout.
“How? How are you going to guarantee a knockout?” Pulev demanded. “It’s all talk. We need to see something real. Not only in sport but in politics, everyone talks so much bullshit. How are you going to guarantee you stop me? This is not real.”
Chisora then revealed just how he will do away with his rival:
“A jab, right hand, and you’re going to drop,” he told Pulev.
Some additional hype to a fight that in truth has not got fans in a lather with excitement. The return between Pulev and Chisora is certainly a decent fight, a solid fight, but not too many people seem to be anticipating fireworks (this despite the fight’s colourful tag-line of “Total Carnage”)
But Chisora says what’s most important to him is entertaining his fans and that this he aims to do on July 9.
“For me, my plan is my fans,” Chisora said. “Entertainment is that plan; that’s what I like. I’m still hungry, I still want to fight, and I still want to do damage.”
Let’s see what Chisora has left in next month’s fight. And Pulev too, come to that.
