Manchester Arena, Manchester - Dillian Whyte (20-1, 15KOs) won a razor-thin twelve round split decision over Dereck Chisora (26-7, 18KOs). The scores were 115-114 for Chisora, 115-113 for Whyte and 115-114 for Whyte.

The fight was originally set for Whyte's British title, but the British Board refused to sanction the fight after Chisora threw a table at Whyte at the final press conference on Thursday.

The WBC sanctioned the fight as an eliminator, but Whyte will have a decent wait - because the winner of next week's fight between Alexander Povetkin and Bermane Stiverne has fist crack at WBC world champion Deontay Wilder.

Chsiora came out like he meant business, throwing hard punches and pushing Whyte back. Whyte was looking to land counters when Chisora was pushing his way inside and going to the body. The second round was close, with Whyte starting to land more of his counters, but Chisora surged in the final minute with his workrate. 

Chisora continued to push forward, throwing big shots and going after Whyte in the third. Chisora was landing the better punches and doing damage. Whyte was landing a few counters in-between. Whyte had a better fourth, with good counters and using defense to block the incoming shots from Chisora.

Some big shots from Chisora in the first minute of the fifth. During the second, he seemed to buzz Whyte with big looping left hands and started pounding him against the ropes. He was doing some real damage as Whyte absorbed the damage. Chisora punched himself our for a moment and that allowed Whyte to recover.

Whyte landed a big hook at the start of the sixth that made Chisora drop his hands. Chisora would soon start pushing forward with both of them trading punches. It was close action on the inside with Whyte doing the cleaner work. They were trading punches against the ropes in the first minute of the seventh. They were both tiring and decided to trade some heavy leather in the final twenty seconds.

They continued to trade in the eight and Whyte was very badly hurt in the final minute of the eight and nearly went down. Chisora punched himself out a bit at the end. Whyte started strong at the start of ninth as Chisora was very tired and taking a breather. Chisora started throwing in the final minute, but he was still outworked for most of the round.   

Some big shots landed for Chisora at the start of the tenth. Whyte was able to get himself out of trouble with his jab. Chisora appeared to be very tired and unable to properly follow up on the punches he was landing. He basically did nothing in the final two minutes. Chisora looked very tired in the eleventh. He was pushing forward and the two of them were landing slapping shots. Whyte controlled the final minute by outworking Chisora as he trapped him in the corner.

There were little left in Chisora's tank at the start of the twelfth, but he was trying his best as Whyte was also running on empty. Both of them rocked each other with big shots as the crowed cheered them on. Chisora seemed to rock Whyte once again in the final ten seconds of the contest.