Derek Chisora has Oleksandr Usyk and The O2 on their feet in delight as he beats Joe Joyce in fight of year contender
DEREK CHISORA pulled off one of the performances of his incredible career to batter Joe Joyce.
The 40-year-old dropped the Putney giant and smashed him all over North Greenwich before securing a magnificent decision.
It should mark the end of loveable 2016 Olympic silver winner Joyce’s pro career, as he has utterly no defence and lost three of his last four in brutal fashion.
Del Boy should retire too but after the judges called it 97-92, 96-94 and 96-94 he looks set on two more battles – in Manchester and his birthplace of Zimbabwe – before he draws the curtain down on a legendary career.
Chisora has spent the long winter of his career training in a London MMA gym and he tried to make the opener a wrestling match.
It was a wise move to take away 38-year-old Joyce’s height and reach advantages and he managed to loop in a couple of clubbing hooks from off Joyce’s chest.
Joyce was not allowed to jab or box with straight punches from rand but he did clip Del with a decent early hook of his own.
The second was another slugfest with more hooks than a fishing tackle shop.
You would have been forgiven for thinking jabs had been outlawed by the British Boxing Board of Control for this haymaker extravaganza.
BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERS
Joyce was cracked, slapped and slashed with whipped shots but never budged or winced.
Joyce’s ponytailed skull was a magnet for punches in the third too, his best form of defence seemed to be to welcome attacks.
But, just before the bell, Chisora was tagged a couple of times and ended the latest thrilling session on the back foot and on the ropes.
Chisora’s bearded face came out caked in Vaseline and his energy seemed to have slipped away.
But Joyce’s non-existent defence meant Chisora could punch him all over the ring, rattling his brain around with punishing but predictable blows that a fighter with a tenth of Joyce’s experience should have been able to telegraph and avoid.
All of Chisora’s attacking success came at a cost, though, and the Smart-car driver looked exhausted by the fifth.
He still managed to park about a dozen sickening shots on Joyce’s unguarded face and it was genuinely hard to watch.
Joyce – always a gentleman – even cracked Chisora with a punch after the bell that almost cost him a point.
And it was the same in the sixth, with Joyce throwing caution to the wind and volunteering up his nose and cheeks for target practice.
The biggest surprise from round seven was Joyce’s face not looking like an apprentice butcher’s chopping block.
His chiselled and stubbled face should have been a bloody mess with chunks of flesh dangling off. But he barely had a mark on him after another one-sided stanza of pounding.
But in round eight it seemed Chisora would collapse and lose out of sheer exhaustion. He could barely stand up, dropped his hands and bumbled about the O2 ring. Still Joyce could not really catch him and he staggered back to his blue corner for another 60-second breather.
As soon as nine started Joyce landed a booming left hook and Chisora spat out a mouthful of blood in a worrying scene.
But moments later, when it seemed he was pinned into a corner and clinging on for his life, he detonated a right hand that flattened Joyce.
The fine art graduate somehow jumped up and beat the count and chased Chisora around until the bell ended another staggering session.
Chisora now just had to survive the tenth and final round, Joyce hit the deck but it was a slip and the British boxing cult hero ran and jigged and hooked and rabble roused the crowd all the way to victory.