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Article - Courtesy of www.standard.co.uk
There will be no more press conferences, soundbites or pointless questions to do with Munich and regret. Yesterday afternoon’s head-to-head in Camden marked the final time I will have to sit alongside Chisora and pretend as though he somehow deserves to fight me. The games have gone on long enough now.
In fact, for the past two months I’ve had to listen to Chisora chat all kinds of rubbish ahead of this fight, easily done when the contest was so far away. But now it is here, just two days away. He’s relying on limited experience and a supposedly granite chin to get him through the fire. Yesterday’s press conference was your usual fare, with two fighters tired of talking. By this stage, I’m fed up with my own voice. Everything that needs to be said has been said and if one more person asks me whether I regret what happened in Munich, I may have to start drinking lemonade again.
The only thing on my mind is getting into that ring and destroying a boxing myth, someone who has reached a level of infamy through doing a number of stupid things. What Dereck doesn’t realise is that the more he talks, the more determined I become to end this fight quickly. He doesn’t want me getting riled and eager to prove a point and yet that is exactly what he did yesterday. It wasn’t anything in particular that got me going, more the idea of him actually thinking he belongs in the same ring as me.
Anybody who knows their boxing will understand what I mean by that. Dereck is a perennial loser, both inside and outside the ring, whereas I have proven myself at a world-class level and have titles as evidence.
Yet, despite this, I have to listen to Dereck make boasts and big claims at the top table. Sure, it’s all part of the build up — and I’ve done my share over the years — but that doesn’t make it any easier to stomach, especially when I have to wait to embarrass and destroy him.
Keep talking, Dereck. I only hope for your sake that your chin is as good as Frank Warren says it is. Otherwise, there could be many disappointed fans come Saturday night.