Derek Chisora could land fight with Wladimir Klitschko

A report from the Daily Mail in the UK says that British and Commonwealth heavyweight titleholder Derek Chisora has been offered a fight with Wladimir Klitschko for December 11.

For Chisora (14-0, 9 KO) it would be an utterly enormous step up in class from the likes of Sam Sexton or a blown-up, retirement-ready Danny Williams. Chisora has improved a lot in the last year, but he's still way, way off of Klitschko's level. The fight is, on paper, a mismatch, and there's simply no getting around that.

But Chisora does have heart, some power, and a useful arrogance about him. It would also be sort of humorous to have the British titlist step up and face Wladimir Klitschko, something WBA titleholder David Haye of Britain has refused to do in favor of fighting domestic veteran and pro flop Audley Harrison on November 13. To upstage the Haye-Harrison fight a month later would be something of a statement on plenty of things, not the least of which would be shining a light once more on Haye's ducking of the Klitschko brothers.

But how about the fight itself? Chisora's last fight on September 18 went into the ninth round, the first time he'd ever been past eight rounds in his short professional career, so stamina could be a huge issue, but then that would be expecting stamina to come into play. Chisora is still rather raw and limited, and Wladimir Klitschko is as polished, powerful and accomplished as they come. Chisora would have almost no chance of beating Klitschko on paper, but then who would? I'm not saying my heavyweight top ten is the gospel, but look at this list:

1. Wladimir Klitschko: He can't fight himself.
2. Vitali Klitschko: He can't fight his brother.
3. David Haye: He can't fight a guy who won't fight him.
4. Tomasz Adamek: Adamek's taking a weak fight against Vinny Maddalone on December 9, but he seems to be building to fighting a Klitschko next year. For now, he gets a pass.
5. Alexander Povetkin: Povetkin has twice backed out of signed fights with Wladimir.
6. Eddie Chambers: Already beat him.
7. Tony Thompson: Already beat him.
8. Ruslan Chagaev: Already beat him.
9. Cristobal Arreola: Injured, plus Vitali already beat him and Arreola has not improved his standing since then to say the least.
10. Odlanier Solis: It'd be nice, but it won't happen.

I suspect if Nikolai Valuev were healthy, the allegedly long-awaited Wladimir-Valuev fight would go down "finally," but he's not, so that's not an option either. What then? Evander Holyfield is almost 50 and only the morbidly curious would want to see the undersized, old "Real Deal" get his face smashed in by a rocket right hand from Wladimir. James Toney might talk a big game about the "Klitschko sisters," and he's probably still at his most marketable coming off of his UFC 118 farce, but let me hazard a guess and say that Toney doesn't really want anything to do with Wladimir, and I'll say it's easy to talk big game about guys who see you as a non-entity and have no interest in fighting you. Jean Marc Mormeck has apparently refused to fight Wladimir, thank God (and Mormeck).

That leaves you with the likes of Derek Chisora. There's really nobody else any better.