by James Slater – Earlier this month, top British promoter Frank Warren threw out a challenge to British heavyweight champion Danny Williams, in which he called out “The Brixton Bomber” on behalf of his unbeaten prospect Derek Chisora. Though he has only had nine pro fights, Warren felt Chisora, nicknamed “Del Boy,” was capable of taking the 35-year-old. Mere days after hearing the challenge thrown his way, Williams accepted the fight and it was on for the big June 27th O2 bill headlined by Andriy Kotelnik’s WBA light-welterweight title defence against Amir Khan. Now, however, the fight is off..
According to a breaking news article on Warren’s official site, the fight has fallen through and the reason for this is Williams asked for double the money he originally agreed to take so as to defend against his unbeaten 25-year-old London rival. A press conference had reportedly been set up for today so as to officially announce the intriguing bout, but instead, according to Warren, Danny reneged on his original deal.
“Danny Williams agreed to the fight last week, but then he came back and asked for double the money,” Warren said angrily. “He can forget it. We are not doing that after his last two snoozathons. Derek will have to get himself into a mandatory position to fight for the title.”
Though it’s bad news that the interesting and tough to pick fight is off, it’s somewhat hard to believe that Williams is afraid of Chisora. In truth, “Del Boy” has looked pretty pedestrian in a couple of his fights, and though big Danny is undeniably a faded force from what he was when he was smashing Mike Tyson to a four round defeat a few years back, he would still have been most peoples’ pick to see off the inexperienced Chisora.
On the other hand, Chisora did TKO Sam Sexton a while back, and bearing in mind what Sexton was able to do in his Commonwealth title fight with Martin Rogan last Friday, maybe Williams saw something he didn’t like and asked for much more money. So far, the British champ has made no public comment about what has happened – but Chisora has had plenty to say!
“It’s disgusting,” Chisora spat. “Williams has had more British title fights than I’ve had fights, but he’s running scared. If we’d have fought I’d have knocked Danny out, and he knows that. Now I need to get myself into a position where I’m the mandatory challenger for his title, and then he’ll have nowhere to hide.”
While it’s debatable at the very least that Chisora would have KO’d Williams, it’s easy to understand why the young fighter is so upset at his big chance falling through. It is not yet known if and who Chisora will now box on the June date instead.