TRAINER Dave Coldwell believes Saturday night’s heavyweight fight between Joe Joyce and Derek Chisora will boil down to what each boxer has left to offer.
The all-British battle takes place at the O2 Arena in London, a venue Chisora is fond of having fought there nine times and won on his last five visits.
Chisora, (34-13, 23 KOs), has been in the veteran stage of his career for some time while Joyce, (16-2, 15 KOs), showed in his two defeats to Zhilei Zhang and his sub-par winning performance against Kash Ali that the end may not be far away for “The Juggernaut” either.
Coldwell, who trained Chisora for his stunning knockout victory against Artur Szpilka – at the O2 – in July 2019 gave his opinion on his former fighter’s bout against Joyce on Saturday (July 27).
Derek Chisora (Photo by James Fearn/Getty Images)
“Derek said it’s his last fight at the O2. It’ll be a bit of an emotional night for him,” Coldwell told Boxing News.
“I know he loves that venue. The fans love him there. They always turn out for him there. I hope he gets a really good reception.
“For the fight it’s whose got what left. I think that’s what it’s down to. Whoever’s got what left.”
The back-to-back knockout losses Joyce suffered at the hands of Zhang last year were conclusive and worrying in equal measure. But in March the 38-year-old got back to winning ways with a final round knockout against Rotherham’s Ali who had lost a six-round points decision to Bohdan Myronets prior to his bout against Joyce.
“A fighter can just go at any time especially when you’re taking shots all the way through your career,” Coldwell said of Joyce.
“Sooner or later that resistance goes and once it’s gone its very rare that it comes back. And it’s not like he’s a fighter that’s got a defence where he can hide that fracture, that weakness and if that is a weakness he’s there to be hit. He had the fight against Kash Ali and he didn’t look great in that fight either. I just genuinely think it’s whose got what left.”
