It is less than two weeks until Derek Chisora says goodbye to his British fans.

The popular heavyweight is intent on having fifty professional fights before calling time on his wild career but his 49th - a ten round contest against Otto Wallin - will be his final appearance on British soil.

Chisora, 35-13 (23 KOs), and Wallin, 27-2 (15 KOs), will meet at Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena on February 8th. The fight will be screened by TNT Sports.

Initially, the 41 year-old was matched with New York’s Jarrell Miller in an event that would have all but guaranteed a fittingly unpredictable, violent finale to Chisora’s time on these shores.

A promotional dispute prevented Miller from finalizing a deal and into the breach stepped the cool, calm and collected Wallin.

The Swede has the style to turn what is being billed as a night of celebration into a frustrating ordeal for Chisora.

At this stage of the Londoner’s career, the thought of spending ten rounds tracking down a 6ft 5in tall southpaw who is intent on sucking all of the emotion and drama out of the occasion will likely cause him more sleepless nights than somebody promising to plant themselves in the centre of the ring and outfight him.

Chisora isn’t heading blindly into his farewell appearance expecting to bob, weave and left hook his through Wallin. The veteran admits that the 34 year-old puts an element of fear into him.

“Yes. he does. I'm not going to lie to you. He does,” Chisora said during Queensberry’s ‘Locked In’ show.

“He puts that fear in me - on the edge. I can't take this guy lightly so I have to do what I do even more because I’m fighting a younger guy.

“His recovery time is better than my recovery time so everything I do now I have to do more and more and more for me to to keep up with him.”

A fight with Chisora doesn’t begin once the first bell rings. Conflict starts as soon as the ink dries on the contract. Chisora’s aim is to force his opponent to hold their feet and trade with him and he does all he can to instigate a war from the earliest opportunity.

Chisora knows that Wallin will do all he can to avoid hostility until it is absolutely necessary and whilst he may be working overtime in the gym to make sure he is physically prepared for what promises to be a long night, he has also tried to land some early blows in the mental battle.

Although he ended up losing a unanimous decision, Wallin put in a sterling display as an underdog to drag Tyson Fury through 12 bloody rounds in 2019 but Chisora has consistently criticized his performance during his fifth round retirement defeat to Anthony Joshua in December 2023.

He has decided to make Wallin fully aware of just how hard February 15th could be and loudly question his willingness to dig in and fight if things start to get away from him.

“He's a good fighter but he lacks one thing though. He hasn't got a heart. They all don’t have the heart. You’re a big guy but you haven’t got it,” Chisora said

“I don't think you’ve got it. You haven’t got the dog in you, mate. The animal in you.

“We are not going to box. This is what I'm trying to tell you. We are not boxing. Boxing is for amateurs. We going to fight so don't think you're coming to box, you’re going to hit me a jab and you're going to run away. No, no, no, no.

“F—k boxing, we are going to fight. You like boxing, that’s b———t. We are fighting. I’m going to hurt you.”