Chisora Pulev

Was really psyched when I heard about this fight. Massively better than the boring Helenius or Joshua matchups that had been talked about for him in the last month or so. He already beat Helenius and was robbed, in an era where contenders don't fight too much, I'd rather see something new happen.

As for Joshua, Joshua appears to be a top 5 HW, just unproven. Most of the top 20 hw's Chisora has faced have been top 5 HW's, and he's usually lost, would probably happen again in that match. I'd much rather see him against someone in the lower top 10, such as Pulev.

I really like Chisora's chances here, he's getting massively underrated. The only guys to beat him are top 5 heavyweights, which Pulev is not; Vitali (best in the division), Fury twice (currently best in the division) and Haye (was top 5 at the time). He performed decently in all those losses except the 2nd Fury loss. Meanwhile, he beat a fringe top 5 guy at the time in Helenius and a fringe top 10 guy in Scott.

Pulev? His best win is easily against Tony Thompson. Scott, whom Chisora beat, arguably had a more impressive win over Tony Thompson than Pulev did. Thompson took the fight in a couple weeks notice, and was beating Pulev in the early rounds and then gassed out. Meanwhile, Scott outboxed Thompson from the beginning and Thompson maintained his stamina throughout the fight, the scores only being slightly closer than in the Pulev fight because of a kd.

Pulev only has about 2.5 inches on Chisora, he doesn't have remotely the height or skills that Fury or Vitali had, or power that Haye had. If Chisora can get in decent shape below 250lbs, I like Chisora to get in on Pulev and rough him up on the inside, even pull out a late stoppage. Helenius and Scott have much more in common with Pulev, both qualitatively and stylistically, than anyone Pulev has beaten has in common with Pulev. Pulev could very well win, but the margins here for Pulev are insane for what should be viewed as essentially a 50/50 fight. If I were a betting man, I'd place a lot on Del Boy.

 

Except he's got a much better resume than more popular picks like Takam and Perez.

 

Problem being Pulev has even less power and there' no real reason to think the older Pulev hasn't slowed down as much as Chisora. And that Pulev has never actually faced a high level pressure fighter like Chisora, while Chisora has beaten high level jabbers before.

 

While not necessary real jabbers, both Helenius and Scott are closer approximations of Pulev, in style and level, than anyone Pulev has faced is toward Chisora. Everyone good that Pulev beat was 1. bigger than him and 2. not a pressure fighter at all.