Chisora reveals Wilder injury and claims ‘he can’t talk and stand’ | Boxing | Sport
Derek Chisora lost to Deontay Wilder via split decision but believes he broke the American’s hand (Image: Richard Pelham, Getty Images)
Derek Chisora believes he broke Deontay Wilder’s hand during their fight at The O2 in London on Saturday night. The two-time world heavyweight title challenger lost his 50th professional victory by split decision 115–112, 113-115, 111-115.
Wilder, 40, floored Chisora, 42, in the eighth round but failed to secure the stoppage that would have been a 44th career knockout. Instead, the American prevailed on points for the first time since 2015 and only the second time as a professional.
Defeat brought an end to Chisora’s three-fight winning run dating back to 2022, and he now intends to retire. Wilder, however, remains determined to continue fighting but will not return to the ring imminently, though, after injuring his hand during the bout.
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Chisora believes he broke Wilder’s hand, saying: “I know I broke two things, his hand and his rib, because right now he can’t talk and stand right now.” The American says he will have X-rays of the injured hand after returning home. I think I may have broken my hand or maybe have a small fracture in it,” Wilder said. “I’m able to move it.
“I’ve broken so many times; I know what it feels like and what it looks like. It may be it’s just a little bit swollen, but it may have a little smaller fracture, so when I get back home, we’ll do X-rays and stuff and see how it is.”
Wilder raised concerns over the gloves ahead of the bout. At the final face-off, he said: “I’ve broken my hands so many times and [I wasn’t happy] with the gloves that were provided. We had an issue with the glove being too tight on my hand.” Chisora shed light on the dispute, explaining: “He wanted to use his own gloves, but I said no because they’re not board-approved, so I stood on my toes and said this is business.”
Deontay Wilder appears to have come out of the fight with Derek Chisora injured despite winning (Image: PA)
Wilder revisited the matter after sustaining another broken hand during his victory, saying: “This is why I had a specific glove that I designed and I made. There were a lot of different situations with the gloves and stuff because I’ve been in this situation. This is my 50th fight.”
“I’ve broken this hand so many different times and still have to fight inside of the ring, and nobody understands what it is, what it feels like to risk your life and then when you’re disabled in certain areas, to still have to carry on with the fight.”
Wilder further revealed that he held back from attempting to knock out Chisora during the closing rounds, stating: “I held back a couple of times because I started thinking about him being with his children.”
“When I saw veins coming out of his temple, I started thinking that this is a dangerous sport. I felt a little sympathy for him. I was even talking to him, like, ‘Derek, come on, bro, we need to stop this, man, we need to stop this.'”
