{"id":692451,"date":"2026-07-15T05:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692451\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T05:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:27:16","slug":"derek-chisora-says-he-turned-down-chance-to-fight-for-heavyweight-world-title-at-42-i-let-it-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692451\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Chisora says he turned down chance to fight for heavyweight world title at 42: “I let it go”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having twice unsuccessfully challenged for world honours, British heavyweight veteran Derek Chisora<\/a> now looks unlikely to become a world champion, but \u2018Del Boy\u2019 has revealed that he recently turned down the opportunity to fight for a world title at the age of 42.<\/p>\n

Chisora came up short against Deontay Wilder back in April<\/a>, in a fight that was supposed to be his career finale, but still rumours of a return refuse to burn out, much like Chisora\u2019s thirst for violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Chisora has now been removed from the world rankings with all four recognised governing bodies, with his dream of finally claiming a world title \u2013 following previous failed attempts against Vitali Klitscko (2012)<\/a> and Tyson Fury (2022) \u2013 looking all but over.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Seconds Out<\/a> though, Chisora has confirmed that he was offered a tempting shot at Murat Gassiev\u2019s WBA heavyweight crown when Tony Yoka pulled out of their fight last week, but that he declined due to a lack of preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it didn\u2019t cross my mind [to step in on short notice]. I was on holiday with the kids and then I got a phone call. I said, \u2018I am going to Russia anyway, I would rather go and watch somebody else fight for it,\u2019 \u2013 erm, liar!<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly what I did, KD [David Ghansa] called me, Nicole [Macdermott] called me and the numbers were ok. Then, I went and did a fitness test and my fitness test was not right, so I said, \u2018You know what? just let it go,\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not ready. Mentally, I was ready, but then you get in there and it\u2019s like boom, boom, boom and you are like \u2018What am I doing this for?\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, the opportunity landed at the feet of Germany\u2019s Peter Kadiru, but he was unable to capitalise and was halted after six rounds of one-sided action in Moscow, before Gassiev proceeded to call on a fight with Chisora during the post-fight interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having twice unsuccessfully challenged for world honours, British heavyweight veteran Derek Chisora now looks unlikely to become a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-692451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}