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Chisora’s Team Demanded Smaller Ring For Wallin Fight Before Contracts Were Finalized
NEWS
Keith Idec
Keith Idec
RingMagazine.com
Chisora’s Team Demanded Smaller Ring For Wallin Fight Before Contracts Were Finalized
The first copy of Otto Wallin’s contract for his heavyweight fight with Dereck Chisora called for a standard 20-foot ring inside the ropes.

The revised version, The Ring has learned, listed a smaller ring, 18 feet inside the ropes, for their 12-round IBF elimination match Saturday night at Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England. Wallin’s handlers didn’t want to accept that alteration to their contracts, but the Swedish southpaw welcomed less room to operate with the bullish but aged Chisora.

The 41-year-old Chisora considers their smaller ring an advantage, of course, as their main event nears. It is Chisora, however, who has lost by knockout or technical knockout four times and is well past his physical prime.

In the event Wallin-Chisora goes the distance, The Ring has confirmed that the British Boxing Board of Control has assigned Hungary’s Bence Kovacs, Belgium’s Olena Pobyvailo and England’s Bob Williams as judges and England’s John Latham as the referee for their fight. Williams judged Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk a 117-112 winner over Chisora in October 2020, whereas Denmark’s Jan Christensen and Russia’s Yury Koptsev scored their 12-rounder closer, 115-113 apiece for Usyk, who won a unanimous decision at OVO Arena Wembley in London.

Wallin, meanwhile, wants to atone for his last performance against a British heavyweight. He will fight for the second time since former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ Anthony Joshua battered Wallin on his way to a fifth-round stoppage in December 2023 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The 34-year-old Wallin will fight for the second time since his lopsided loss to Joshua 13½ months ago when he encounters Chisora in the main event of a 10-fight card handled by Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions. Chisora-Wallin undercard coverage on TNT Sports 1 is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. GMT in the United Kingdom and at 1:30 p.m. ET in the United States on DAZN, which will stream part of the card worldwide except in the UK.

New York’s Wallin (27-2, 15 KOs, 1 NC), a 6-foot-5 southpaw who stands four inches taller than his rugged opponent, is listed by DraftKings as slightly more than a 2-1 favorite to beat Chisora (35-13, 23 KOs). London’s Chisora has won back-to-back 10-round unanimous decisions over American Gerald Washington (20-6-1, 13 KOs) and Brit Joe Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs).

Keith Idec is a staff writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.

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