Derek Chisora made the ring walk in the O2 Arena with the crowd behind him out of mere respect.
Chisora, a true warrior in every sense, has never shied away from a challenge in his career. The prevailing sentiment was that this match would be his parting gift to the boxing world.
Why wouldn’t they think that? Chisora was fighting a younger, desperate fighter in Joe Joyce, but, as always, Chisora was his stubborn self.
That attitude catapulted Chisora to the unanimous decision, upset over Joyce.
The official scorecards:
97-92 Chisora
96-94 Chisora
96-94 Chisora
MTC Scorecard:
97-92 Chisora
Joyce stunned Chisora with a left hook in the first round, but Chisora responded in the second round by being more active and landing big shots as Joyce stood in front of him with zero head movement.
In the fourth, Chisora put together a dominating round by keeping his distance and staying active.
Round 5 was a three-minute back-and-forth. Chisora landed more punches, but Joyce landed the heavier punches. Once again, it was a round, and Joyce had no head movement.
Joyce started the 7th round by throwing his jab, but the jab was thrown without conviction, so Chisora kept coming forward. Later in the round, Chisora seemed to tire, and Joyce started to land heavy punches, including an uppercut that sent Chisora’s head back far enough to see the lights. But Chisora responded by landing some big punches near the end of the round.
In the 8th round, Chisora looked like he was cruising until Joyce hurt him with a left hook in the last 90 seconds of the round, taking Chisora’s legs away. Chisora struggled to get back to the corner.
Joyce hurt Chisora again early in the 9th round. He spent a lot of the round staying behind his jab, and then, out of nowhere, Chisora stunned Joyce with a flash knockdown from a right hook.
The win was the most significant present Chisora could give to his fans and himself.
