In the ring prior to his hard-fought loss to older brother Vitali Klitschko, heavyweight Dereck Chisora got into the face of Wladimir Klitschko and spit water at him. Here's the video:
[ Klitschko vs Chisora Results and Recap ]
Chisora (15-3, 9 KO) and the Klitschko camp had a long two days overall. Yesterday at the weigh-in, Chisora slapped Vitali in the face, causing quite a stir. Today, before the fight, Wladimir was sent by his brother's team to watch the hand-wrapping process in Chisora's locker room.
At first, Wladimir was denied entry, and he wound up having words with members of Chisora's team and eventually with Chisora's promoter, Frank Warren. The two sorted it out, got Wladimir in the locker room, and then there was controversy about the wrapping process itself.
After all of that, with a brief period where Chisora was threatening not to fight, the fight went on, and was a fairly competitive, entertaining affair. But when it was over, the two camps had more words in the ring, with Vitali and Chisora jawing, Wladimir arguing with members of Chisora's team, and then with Chisora himself, and finally, after a lot of tense situations, Warren stepped in and put an end to all the nonsense.
This is part of who Dereck Chisora is. There's no arguing that he's a tough, gutsy fighter who comes to make a go of it, isn't going to roll over, and can be very fun to watch. But he's also a goon, an attention-seeking brat who often goes what many feel is "too far." These aren't even "pro wrestling theatrics" -- this is just mean-spirited, classless stuff that he pulls far too often for the tastes of many.
Given that he's not a great fighter, this sort of thing may lead to a short peak period for Chisora. He's a good fighter, but eventually he's going to keep messing about with things like this and lose more and more fans. It might seem like a good idea to get this sort of attention, and in the short-term it can be a benefit in some ways, but in the long run, you hurt your image far more than you help it, or at least that is my opinion.
Did Chisora go too far with his antics the last two days?