John Hill looks ahead to Bad Blood this weekend at the ExCel
This Saturday’s boxing card dubbed Bad Blood, sponsored by Coral, has the potential to be one of the best domestic evenings not only of 2014, but for many years.
The headline fight features two heavyweights who really don’t like each other. Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora have been building up to this bout ever since Fury and Mick Hennessy signed an agreement with Frank Warren to feature on Box Nation on a short-term deal.
The clash was initially scheduled to take place earlier this year in Manchester but a hand injury picked up by Chisora only days before the bout forced it to be cancelled at the 12th hour.
It looks like nothing is going to stop the fighters from getting it on in the ExCel Arena on Saturday evening where Fury is the 2-5 favourite with the sponsor, while Chisora is the underdog at 2-1.
The winner of the main event will be the mandatory challenger for Wladimir Klitschko’s WBO World heavyweight title so there is a lot at stake for these British boxers.
At the weigh-in today at the imperial War Museum, the journalists in attendance were ready for a war or words once again between the two boxers, but instead, surprisingly, they were both quite muted. The two heavyweights looked focused on the job in hand and were in great shape ahead of tomorrow’s weigh-in.
Fury talked about how he has been wrestling in the build up to this fight as he expects Chisora to lean on him a lot in the ring. He also spoke about how crucial it was to maintain his 100% record in order to pick up some of the big names around the world in the division.
The pair last met in 2011 at Wembley Arena and it was Fury who came out on top by decision on that occasion. Chisora was in a really poor shape and since then has really dedicated himself to the sport.
On paper this really does look a 50-50 fight so the 2-1 offered by Coral on Chisora is tempting and is most definitely the value play in this one.
Elsewhere on the night, Billy Joe Saunders takes on Chris Eubank Jr in a fight that could have topped the bill anywhere in the country.
How good is Chris Eubank Jr? Well we are going to find out the answer to that question on Saturday as this is the toughest test of his career. He has been knocking out lesser opponents for fun so far in the ring but Saunders has proved he is the best in the country at his weight division and is a worthy 4-6 favourite.
You can watch Chisora v Fury and Saunders v Eubank Jr LIVE and Exclusive on @BoxNation from 7pm this Saturday night. Sky Ch437, Virgin Ch546, TalkTalk Ch525. Don’t miss a minute of the action – subscribe now!
