DEREK CHISORA dragged Deontay Wilder toward retirement – and almost over the ropes – with a clumsy scrap that ended his career in defeat.
The heavyweight pair – with a shared age of 82 and 10 children – tried to revisit their halcyon days but fell well short.
The 42-year-old Londoner did land a late knockdown that got the O2 roaring.
But Wilder, 42, dominated him for long spells and bullied him down and through the ropes on a couple of occasions, before the judges called it: 115-111 Wilder, 115-112, Chisora and 115-113 to the American.
Chisora rushed him and pushed him back onto the ropes but he didn’t throw enough shots.
The Brit brawler stayed in a dangerously hitable distance, when he should have smothered the gangly whacker.
Then with a few seconds left the clumsy pair clinched and almost flew over the ropes together. Long limps and Chisora’s lumps threatened to carry them over the top rope, like a royal rumble, and dump them in the VIP seats.
Chisora’s gameplan remained suicidal in the second, when he hovered at midrange and was far too easy for the former world champ to clip at a safe distance.
There was a violent exchange in a neutral corner, that Wilder seemed to get the better of.
But It was a scrappy and shambolic start that seemed to suggest Chisora wad bungled his exit strategy.
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Wilder was walking to his left, always offering up Chisora the chance to swing a right-handed haymaker.
But he bizarrely turned the invitations down and only threw a sledgehammer right at the end of the round.
Worryingly he started complaining about an eye problem right on the bell and his team went to work on it before the fourth started.
Wilder hit the deck in the fourth but it correctly wasn’t scored after he slipped after more roughhousing.
The visitor tagged the North Londoner with spiteful digs that had the crowd concerned.
But then he finally started hurling bombs over the top, a couple of right-hand howitzers wobbled Wilder.
Chisora kept marching Wilder down but neglecting to throw, allowing Wilder’s uppercuts to become a threat.
When Chisora did loop it in, the crowd gasped with excitement and sighed when Wilder shrugged it off.
By the midway point both powerhouses had tumbled to the canvas but there were no counts, just bad balance and limited fitness, at post-40.
Chisora’s left eye was bloodshot and leaking for the second half and Wilder landed a venomous uppercut in the sixth that would have incapacitated most of his previous opponents.
In the seventh round there was a shambles, when both veterans – with a combined age of 82 – fell on top of each other, and onto the canvas. It was unedifying, as the whole affair was becoming.
Chisora landed a juicy right hand in the eighth but then Wilder robbed him of his senses with a skull shaker.
Chisora bundled back and eventually tumbled down through the ropes in his own red corner.
Wilder steamed in again to finish the job, with Chisora cornered and vulnerable, but he lost a point from referee Mark Bates for pushing him through the ropes again.
Wilder bossed the later rounds and even started trash talking the local cult hero.
Chisora seemed to surrender in the 10th when he retreated to a neutral corner, dropped his hands and waited to be battered.
His own trainer even bellowed “what the f*** are you doing” more than once. But thankfully he slugged his way out of the debacle to hear another bell.
By the eleventh round the crowd was more interested in rows in the stands but then Chisora was bullied down and out of the ropes again and given another count.
But with ten seconds left he finally connected with a booming right hand and dropped Wilder for an eight count but he didn’t have a chance to close the show.
And the friendly foes finished the evening hugging – as much of the previous 36 minutes had gone.
