Dereck Chisora Wins Split Decision Over Kubrat Pulev
In their latest contest, heavyweights Kubrat “The Cobra” Pulev (29-2, 14 KO’s) and Dereck “War” Chisora (32-12, 23 KO’s) chose to face one another. In all honesty, this bout was little more than an action-fight to please the fans. At this point in his career it is all but guaranteed that Chisora will never win or even compete for a world title again. In fact, coming into this match with Pulev, War was riding a three-fight losing streak having not claimed a win since 2019.
To his credit though, Chisora has fought a laundry list of top heavyweight fighters. On that list reside Joseph Parker (twice), Carlos Takam, Dillian Whyte (twice), Vitali Klitschko, David Haye, WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (twice) and current unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. Admittedly, he lost the better majority of these matchups. Now, Chisora fights for the check and thrills of combat. And it should be no surprise that this will be another rematch with War and The Cobra having already fought in 2016.
Pulev has many fewer losses having only been toppled by Wladimir Klitschko (2014) and more recently by Anthony Joshua. Yet, the loss to Joshua was rather destructive. Similar to Chisora, Pulev has never held a full world title but only secondary belts such as the WBA Inter-Continental strap. With championship ambitions still on his mind, it will be interesting to see what future ventures Pulev can parlay this performance into.
RAPID-FIRE
The match opened with a very aggressive Chisora who came in behind a herky-jerky style and good body work. Each and every time War got in close, Pulev would hold until referee Marcus McDonnell broke them. Overall it was a pretty frustrating round to watch, although Chisora did land a few good, thumping punches in the closing moments of the round. Pulev continued his marathon of clinching in the second. Now though, Chisora sought to constantly hammer away at The Cobra’s body with his free hand.
Over the third and fourth rounds Chisora maintained himself as the more frequent puncher yet Pulev was letting his hands go with greater success. The rapid pace that he himself set appeared to be getting to War. In the sixth, The Cobra picked up a small cut on his left eye. As the blood began flowing from his eye, Pulev absorbed the most damage of the fight in the seventh. Instead of the body, Chisora was lighting The Cobra up with impactful head shots.
LOSING STREAK SNAPPED!
By the eighth, both fighters looked rather asthmatic and sought to milk every opportunity to rest. A right uppercut in the closing minute from Pulev wobbled War and allowed the Bulgarian to end the period on a high note. Pulev rolled his success into the first part of the ninth until an overhand right stopped him in his tracks. The two weary warriors traded shots to the end with both threatening to collapse from fatigue the whole way.
Heading into the final round, the fight really could have swung either way. Fighting through obvious exhaustion, neither man was willing to yield. Yet when it was all said and done, the judges awarded Dereck Chisora the win by way of split decision. They saw it to the tune 116-112 (Pulev), 116-112 (Chisora) and 116-114 (Chisora). This definitely murders any hope that Pulev had of fighting for a full title any time soon. In his post-fight interview, after admitting he is close to retirement, Chisora called out Deontay Wilder.
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By: Bakari Simpson
