LONDON – Saturday night at the O2 Arena in Greenwich, London, United Kingdom, Dereck Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs), from Finchley by way of Mbare, Zimbabwe, came from behind to flatten resilient Carlos Takam (35-5-1, 27 KOs), from Noisy-le-Grand, Seine-Saint-Denis, France, by way of Douala, Cameroon, with two explosive right hands to win the vacant WBA International heavyweight title.
The time of the stoppage was 1:01 of round eight.
“Takam is tough,” said Chisora after the fight. “I realized I couldn’t trade with him toe-to-toe. I knew the overhand right could catch him. In that round, I knew it was time to send it home.”
Chisora was 3-3 in his last six bouts and it looked like it was over before it began. Takam put some serious hurt on Chisora in the opening rounds and it looked like the fight was in the bag. But a heavyweight with heavy hands can end it at any time, even a heavyweight as inconsistent as Chisora, and he survived the punishment Takam doled out to serve up some punishment of his own
“He didn’t hurt me,” Chisora said. “I’m English, nobody can hurt us.”
Chisora resurrected a career that was sorely in need of resurrection. He has fought everyone during his decade fighting professionally and has been counted out, figuratively if not literally, many times. But with last night’s come-from-behind victory, Chisora is again in the mix and a tough opponent for any heavyweight looking for a serious challenge.
