FRESH on the back of one of the worst hometown decisions ever awarded in a boxing ring, involving Britain’s Dillian Whyte being given the nod over Jermaine Franklin of the USA despite the latter out-boxing and out-landing the Londoner for the vast majority of the fight at Wembley Arena last weekend, all eyes turn to Tyson Fury’s latest foray — this time against Derek Chisora — at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tonight.

On paper this is not a fight anyone should be more than mildly interested in. Put plainly, expecting 70,000 fans to turn up to brave the evening winter weather at an open air stadium to watch Fury take on a fighter, in Chisora, who’s lost three of his last four fights and who at 38 has had more lickings than a cat’s paw, is the very definition of a brass neck.

Compounding the offence is broadcaster BT Sport charging £26.95 for the privilege of watching these proceedings from the comfort of your own living room, having concluded that Fury’s profile and celebrity justifies shearing the boxing public like so many sheep.

Turning to the actual fight itself, it has all the makings of a turgid affair, what with the high likelihood of Chisora trying but largely failing to get inside Fury’s jab and finding himself stuck out of range on the outside bereft of ideas and invention while being picked apart.

No criticism or disrespect is either meant or implied. Derek Chisora has more than earned the title of British boxing legend, having taken part in some of the most ferocious ring wars of the modern era. It’s astonishing to think that all the way back in 2012 he gave then world champion Vitali Klitschko one of his toughest fights in Germany, which he only lost on points.

Thereafter erupted his infamous encounter with David Haye at the postfight presser, during which Chisora felt the sting of a lemonade bottle and began ranting like a member of the Mexican Mafia. In July of the same year he faced Haye across a boxing ring at West Ham’s original Upton Park in front of 30,000 spectators, who witnessed his demise by TKO in the fifth round. 

That was 10 years ago and despite the thirteen losses on his record, Chisora is adamant he still has more to give, lots more, and he fully intends continuing as long as there is money to be made and bills to be paid.

Fair enough, but in boxing the line between health and wealth is incredibly fine and all too often blurred to the point of no return. Has Derek Chisora arrived at the departures terminal of his career? Based on recent performances deterioration has become entrenched and the idea that the 2022 version of Chisora could do what neither the 2011 and 2014 versions could do and give Tyson Fury a hard night at the office is difficult to take seriously.

This is precisely where the chorus of criticism from many fans when it comes to this contest emanates from. In selecting Chisora as his opponent for the voluntary defence of his WBC title, Fury it is felt has opted for the easy over the challenging, with the lack of jeopardy suggesting that the most exciting thing about this particular event may well be the ring walks.

Fury’s last fight against the previously mentioned Dillian Whyte was an eminently pedestrian affair, due to the latter’s poverty of ability when it comes right down to it. Fury operates at several levels above the Whytes and Chisoras of this world, which told in his last outing and begs the question of who, with AJ’s recent lack of success also in mind, has what it takes to seize the day from the Gypsy King. 

Oleksandr Usyk, whom Fury derides as a middleweight, presently holds every other heavyweight belt other than the latter’s WBC one, but the prospect of him being able to overcome the mad difference in size and weight between them does on the surface appear absurd.

All in all, the heavyweight division is historically weak compared to previous eras. Watching footage of Earnie Shavers fight Ron Lyle back in in 1975 recently really does place things into proper perspective when comparing and contrasting. Shavers, according to Muhammad Ali, was the hardest puncher he ever faced, while Lyle could bang too.

That neither Shavers nor Lyle ever managed to win a world title while being significantly more accomplished and educated in their work than every heavyweight today excepting Fury illustrates the extent to which the heavyweights have regressed rather than progressed.

Here, one of the great imponderables centres around the lack of heavyweight talent in the United States. Heavyweight boxing and America have been completely synonymous for most of the sport’s history. Jack Johnson, Rocky Marciano, Archie Moore, Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston, Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Norton, Tyson, Holyfield – the list never ends when looking back at the array of heavyweight legends produced there.

Nowadays it’s the likes of Deontay Wilder, Andy Ruiz Jr, and Michael Hunter flying the flag for Uncle Sam in the heavyweight division, and none of them would make the all time top 10 rankings of any serious boxing aficionado, confirming that what was once an abundant crop has been reduced to an arid desert.

Back to Tyson Fury and the journey he is on from obesity and attempted suicide, to the inordinate riches and success he now enjoys, has and continues to be extraordinary to watch. His is the story of descent and ascent that capitalism’s true believers can’t get enough of. It’s a story that, if not careful, has the potential to make mugs of us all.

It’s certainly made mugs of those who’ve fallen for the hype and will be gathered, chittering, around a boxing ring in the middle of the pitch at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tonight. In the immortal words of the equally immortal Don King: “If you want to sell a steak, you can’t just have the sizzle, you gotta have sauce.”

The lack of sauce when it comes to Fury v Chisora III is self-evident.