Dereck Chisora had a very simple answer when asked to remember the proudest moment of his remarkable career.

“All of them,” the veteran heavyweight told Queensberry.

“I think all of them because the fans used to pay to watch me lose and now they pay to watch me win.

“From the from the ring to the fans to the arguments, every moment has been amazing.”

Chisora, 35-13 (23 KOs), is a month out from his final fight on British soil. On February 8th he will fight Sweden’s Otto Wallin, 27-2 (15 KOs), at Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena.

Chisora - who intends to retire after his fiftieth professional fight - had been due to say goodbye to his British fans with what looked like a surefire crowd pleaser with the fiery Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller but when promotional issues forced the American out of the fight, the cool, calm Wallin stepped into his place.

Chisora wouldn’t have had to look very hard to find the aggressive Miller but the 6ft 5in tall southpaw will pose a much more complicated set of problems.

“I’m fighting a younger guy. A guy who’s got so much to prove himself, who’s had not many fights but he's hungry,” Chisora said.

“He’s a young lion so I will not take my eye off the ball. I will not be comfortable I’ll be on it.

“Maybe Frank Warren is to trying to get me beat,” he laughed. “Telling me he's my friend and then he gives me a southpaw.”

Wallin leapt at the chance to replace Miller. The 34 year-old is desperate to inject some life back into his career following a disappointingly one-sided loss to former two-time unified champion, Anthony Joshua, in December 2023 and will see Chisora as the ideal, high profile opponent to make a statement against.

In 2019, Wallin gave Tyson Fury a tough, bloody nights work and many expected him to pose Joshua some serious problems but he never looked like getting a foothold in the fight and was retired in his corner after five one-sided rounds.

After the fight, Chisora wasn’t particularly complimentary about Wallin’s performance and the manner in which the fight ended. A big part of the reason why British fans have taken Chisora to their hearts is the way he continually refuses to throw in the towel either in the ring or out of it and he referenced that mindset when asked about his previous comments on Wallin.

“I want to say this to all the fighters. When you get a bigger stage to fight on and things are not going your way, you don't have to find a way out,” he said.

“You have to get that dog in yourself. You go back to your corner, you listen to your corner and go, ‘You know what? These motherfuckers don’t know what they're talking about. I'm getting my ass whooped in here. I’m bleeding my, nose is broken. I’ve got cut on my eye.’

“What do you do? You take your gumshield, you bite it and you go for it.

“I always use this knowledge on myself. It’s a sad way to explain this to you guys but I look at myself as a soldier. So, I leave my house, I'm going to war. If I get killed at war they'll come to my house. My kids are on benefits. They’ll bury me in the veteran cemetery. They’ll give me the gun salute.

"If I come back from war wounded but I survived, when they bury me they don’t bury me as a veteran. They bury me as a bum. As a civilian as a civilian so I take that in boxing.

“When I got knocked out by Dilian Whyte, I came out of the ring and I’m like, ‘Oh well. Fine’ because I know I didn’t have anything else to do. I got knocked out but when you lose the fight on points and it's in your control to win the fight but you're you're not biting your gumshield to go for it, you’re a bum.”