by Johnny Walker

Rising UK heavyweight Tyson Fury utterly destroyed rival UK contender Dereck “Del Boy” Chisora tonight at the ExCel Arena in London, United Kingdom. The bout was a rematch of a 2011 bout also won by Fury in a wide unanimous decision.

This time, Chisora didn’t make it to the final bell. Fury (23-0, 17 KOs), minus the bushy beard he’d been sporting recently, was in charge from the opening bell onwards, picking Chisora’s face apart with a sharp jab, ripping him with body shots, and by round four staggering him with a left hook.

Through it all, Fury, often known for his wild verbal outbursts, remained composed, resisting the urge to load up for a spectacular finish. It was the kind of controlled big man performance Fury has often ripped when employed by world champion Wladimir Klitschko, who ironically has now changed philosophies by trying to end fights faster – and whose recent beatdown of Kubrat Pulev was far more exciting than tonight’s routine Fury stoppage win over Chisora.

With Fury seemingly reluctant to go for the kill against an obviously spent Chisora, the rounds from frame number six onwards were redundant, with Chisora unable to do much of anything as Fury blocked his attempts at overhand rights easily and continued to pick his opponent apart with a variety of shots like a cat toying with its prey. Fury even fought a majority of the fight in a southpaw style, rather than his natural orthodox stance, which seemed to confuse Chisora even more.

With a restless sold-out crowd booing, Fury finally went for the finish in round 10, ripping power shots at Chisora with his opponent’s eyes now swollen shut and his nose bleeding. Fury kept looking at the referee to end the torture, but it wasn’t until Chisora staggered back to his corner that trainer Don Charles (aided and abetted by promoter Frank Warren) convinced his charge to stop the fight, as all was lost.

With the TKO win, Fury is now set for a challenge to world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko later in 2015. In the meantime, he will take on a domestic challenge: perhaps fellow giant and Twitter target David Price, which would be a money-spinner in the UK, but also a bit of a risk should Fury get caught with a big right hand and miss his coveted payday with the champ.

Meanwhile, Chisora (20-5-0, 13 KOs) is left to ponder what is left of his career as he has fallen short every time he has tried to step into the big leagues, with losses to Fury, Vitali Klitschko, David Haye and Robert Helenius (a controversial split decision).

With the win, Fury picks up the vacant BBBofC British heavyweight title and the EBU (European) heavyweight title. But it is Klitschko’s world titles he covets most of all.

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