If David Haye were Oleksandr Usyk’s manager, he would’ve advised against fighting Dereck Chisora.

There’s too much at stake for the unbeaten Usyk, in Haye’s opinion, for him to have accepted a fight with Chisora that’s scheduled for May 23 at O2 Arena in London. Ukraine’s Usyk, once the undisputed cruiserweight champion, is the WBO’s mandatory challenger for one of Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight titles.

A loss to Chisora obviously would eliminate that championship chance.

“If Oleksandr Usyk was my fighter, no, I wouldn’t,” Haye, who manages Chisora, told IFL TV recently. “It’s too unnecessarily dangerous and there are too many unknowns before the big fight with Anthony Joshua.”

In some ways, Haye considers Chisora’s style more difficult for the left-handed Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) than Joshua’s style, even though Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) is five inches taller and more skillful than Chisora (32-9, 23 KOs).

“It sounds like a real weird thing I’m about to say,” Haye said, “but I think Dereck Chisora’s style is worse for Usyk than Anthony Joshua’s style. Anthony Joshua is an Olympic gold medalist. He likes to keep things long, he likes to jab, he likes to slip, he likes to use boxing skills. Well, [Usyk] is like the best boxing big guy out there. You know, so it’ll be a boxing match between him and Joshua, whereas Dereck Chisora isn’t. That’s not his thing. His thing isn’t boxing. His thing is fighting. And we don’t know what Usyk’s like when he starts to fight. I’m not talking boxing. I’m not talking slipping, tucking up. I’m talking about when he’s gotta get down and dirty, when it’s really getting tough, when he’s getting hit round the back of the head, when he’s getting pushed in his face, when he’s getting hit low, on the hips, on the side of the head, back of the head.

“When it gets real rough in there and you’re starting to really feel the pace, I haven’t seen him in them positions yet. Maybe he rises to the occasion, but it’s unknown. I know Dereck can. Dereck’s done it time and time again, been doing it times probably when he shouldn’t be doing it. He’s had to go soul searching. And if it becomes a fight where it’s who can drown the longest, who can take as much pain, I feel Dereck Chisora’s ticked that box, probably one of the biggest boxes being ticked from him over the years is his sort of bounce-back ability and his toughness.”

The 33-year-old Usyk wasn’t overly impressive in his only fight since moving up from cruiserweight to heavyweight last year. He stopped Chazz Witherspoon following the seventh round October 12 in Chicago, but Philadelphia’s Witherspoon (38-4, 29 KOs) landed shots on Usyk and didn’t go away as easily as a many expected from a 38-year-old opponent who took that bout on short notice.

The 36-year-old Chisora, meanwhile, has fought WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury twice, former WBC champ Vitali Klitschko, Dillian Whyte twice, Haye, Robert Helenius, Kubrat Pulev, Carlos Takam and Agit Kabayel, among others, during his 12-year pro career.

“His seasoned heavyweight campaign has been filled with tough, grueling fights, where he’s come back from the brink of, you know, getting knocked out and he’s come back,” said Haye, a former cruiserweight and heavyweight champ. “Just look at his fight against Carlos Takam. You know, could Usyk have taken that much punishment from Carlos Takam? I don’t believe so. I don’t believe he’s big enough or strong enough to absorb that type of punishment. Would he have needed to? Is he skillful enough to avoid all of those punches? Maybe. Maybe he is, but maybe he ain’t. And we’ll find out May 23rd.”

 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.