Chisora To Charles Martin: You Can't Beat Fury, I'll Challenge You

by David P. Greisman

Dereck Chisora got Charles Martin’s attention. And he’s hoping that getting Martin’s attention will get him a shot at Martin’s world title.

The former contender and one-time title challenger got ahold of a microphone during the post-fight press conference following Martin’s title win over Vyacheslav Glazkov this past Saturday in Brooklyn. But while Martin was talking about hopefully having unification fights with Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder someday soon, Chisora felt Martin should take him on first.

“To be honest with you, I don’t think you can beat Tyson Fury. I fought him twice and I’ve lost twice,” Chisora said. Fury outpointed him in 2011 and then stopped him in 10 rounds in their rematch in 2014. “The guy’s too big. He’s got a longer reach.”

Chisora gave Martin a backhanded compliment for his achievement in winning a vacant belt, though he noted the victory came because Glazkov tore his anterior cruciate ligament and said he couldn’t continue with about a minute remaining in the third round.

“You won. You’re the heavyweight champion of the world, even though the guy broke his feet walking in there,” Chisora said. “You still won the title, so I take my hat off to you and everybody should respect you for winning the title. When are you going to defend your title? Who are you going to fight?”

Martin responded: “Whatever my team wants is what I’ll do. I don’t fear no man.”

Said Chisora: “Me and you can do it. I don’t mind. I’ll challenge him. I don’t mind. I’m down for fighting. I’ll challenge you any time you want, bro. Shall we do it in Vegas? L.A.? all the HWs are here. We’re like a bunch of hyenas. We want to get the scraps.”

Martin, 29, is now 23-0-1 with 21 KOs. Chisora is 32 and is 25-5 with 17 KOs. His losses came to Fury in 2011, a split decision to Robert Helenius in 2011 largely derided as a robbery, a unanimous decision to Vitali Klitschko in 2012, a fifth-round stoppage to David Haye later that year, and then the rematch loss to Fury in 2014. He’s won five straight since then.

Fury is going into a contractually mandated rematch against Wladimir Klitschko and Wilder will potentially be going on to face his mandatory challenger, Alexander Povetkin. That could leave an opportunity for Chisora, though there are plenty of other heavyweights who like Martin are signed with adviser Al Haymon and may get the bout instead.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com