Deontay Wilder vs. Derek Chisora engaged in an all-out Heavyweight slugfest this past weekend (Sat., April 4, 2026)m resulting in a very entertaining, back-and-forth chaotic scene in London, England (watch full video highlights here).
Over the course of 12 rounds of action, both men tried to take each others’ head off with wild haymakers; however, nothing huge ever really landed for either man. Technique was pretty much non-existent throughout, as both power punchers were seemingly focused on hitting the one homerun shot that would score them a knockout win.
And while the big knockout shot never came, each man did get some good licks in, with Wilder knocking down Chisora a few times. Speaking of which, Chisora got very familiar with the canvas because aside from the two knockdowns, he was tossed to the floor on several occasions, almost going through the ropes … twice.
Just seconds to one of those incident, however, cameras caught Wilder mouthing something to Chisora, which appeared to be “I love you, I am sorry,” before tagging him with a big shot and then pushing him through the ropes:
For all of you wrestling fans, that mirrors what Shawn Michaels did to Ric Flair before giving him a taste of sweet chin music nearly 20 years ago (see it here).
What really troubled some during the fight was the fact that it was obvious Wilder had Chisora hurt, but didn’t go for the actual kill. During his post-fight speech, Wilder admitted that he took his foot of the gas pedal out of respect to his fellow hard-hitting pugilist, who was taking part in his final fight.
“This was his retirement fight, and I as I was telling him in the ring when I started seeing his eyes well, his temple bump a bit I told him,” Wilder explained. “‘Bro you have got to live for your kids, I don’t want to hurt you too much longer.’ So, I started to have fun in there because I saw my brother starting to get hurt.
“I started to see his eyes wince a little bit,” Wilder added. And that is what boxing is all about. Too many lives have been lost in this ring. Nobody give a f*ck about us. Fighters have to look after each other. And tonight, I looked after him tonight. I didn’t wanna go too hard on him because i started to see the veins come out of his head.
“And I want him to live for his kids,” he concluded. “It’s time for us to take care of each other, I have seven kids of my own.”
In the end, Wilder was awarded the split decision win, which obviously didn’t please Chisora’s faithful British fans who packed the O2 Arena. The win for Wilder, 40, pushed his record to 45-4-1 and earned his first back-to-back win streak since 2019.
That said, to hear one fighter take it easy on another when he or she could have piled on the punishment will obviously not sit too well with some fight fans and critics alike (bettors, too), so it’s interesting to hear “The Bronx Bomber” actually fess up to it. Then again, there will be other who might applaud Wilder for not hurting his foe if he didn’t have to.
We know how Jake Paul feels about not hurting someone who didn’t need to be hurt, but which side of the fence are you on?
