By Tris Dixon

PROMOTER Eddie Hearn was not lost for words but he was running out of superlatives to describe Dereck Chisora’s performance after eight blistering rounds against Carlos Takam.

As Chisora dug deep into the trenches, it started to look bleak for the Englishman and Hearn did not see a way for his man to win.

“I didn’t,” Eddie admitted. “I wasn’t sure he could win the fight and during the fight I couldn’t see a way. How can you do that to Takam? You can’t really out-tough him. You can’t trade with him. You can’t really outwork him. So how do you beat him? Chisora has never been renowned for having the power to crush people. And in the seventh round I was thinking maybe they should pull him [Chisora] out, that he was taking too much punishment. And when he threw that right hand… Wow. It was a great finish.”

Two right hands dropped Takam twice. The second time he went down and out.

“Before the fight I felt Dereck could win,” Hearn added. “He had a bad shoulder going in and he hurt his hand [in the fight], but he can fight. He’s tough. And technically he’s very good. He was catching on the inside, ripping them to the body…”

What now for Chisora, who has put himself right back in the mix at heavyweight?

“Him and Dillian [Whyte] is a great fight,” said Hearn. “I’d like one of them to fight [Deontay] Wilder. So I’m going to go back to Wilder. I don’t think he fancies Dillian Whyte. Dillian is horrible to fight. He’s a handful. But maybe after the 12th round he thinks, ‘Oh.’ But maybe he will go for Chisora.”