The IBF’s Credibility Under Fire: Derek Chisora’s Mandatory Title Shot Against Daniel Dubois Deemed A ‘Joke’ By Angry Boxing Fan

Next month, the IBF will order heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois to defend his belt against his 41-year-old mandatory opponent, Derek Chisora, on April 22nd. The two Brits have a deadline of June 21st to end this fight.

Fans on social media are angry about this fight. They feel it’s a bad look for the 27-year-old Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) to defend his IBF heavyweight title against a clearly past his best Chisora (36-13, 23 KOs), whose career is being patched together with careful matchmaking against older fighters.

Safety Concerns

The IBF needs to make their title eliminators a lot tougher to prevent washed-up fighters from becoming mandatory challengers and getting destroyed by champions. It’s not safe to have fighters as old as Chisora challenging an elite heavyweight like Dubois. Moreover, it’s a bad product for fans who are expecting to see a competitive match.

Chisora is the equivalent of an old dinosaur that doesn’t belong to fighting anyone remotely talented. Putting the soon-to-be 42-year-old Chisora in with Dubois isn’t safe and makes the sport look bad in the eyes of fans. It’s not fair to the naive fans who will purchase tickets for the event or order it on PPV if it’s sold in that format.

Chisora would be better off fighting old-timers’ fights like the way old baseball players do when they’re too old to compete, but putting him in with a world champion like Dubois hurts the integrity of the sport. People are upset that the IBF made it easy for a clearly past-his-prime Chisora to become the mandatory for Dubois’s belt with his fight against Otto Wallin.

The IBF should be focusing on fighter safety, as Chisora looks and sounds like he’s nowhere near the fighter he was in 2012 when an injured, one-armed Vitali Klitschko soundly beat him. With one arm, Vitali beat Chisora like a drum. Delby looked like he didn’t belong in the same ring with him.

Many boxing fans felt the Chisora-Wallin fight shouldn’t have been sanctioned as an IBF world title eliminator. Anthony Joshua had knocked out Wallin in five rounds, and he’s beaten no one notable since that defeat. In Wallin’s last fight, he beat an obscure heavyweight named Onoriode Ehwarieme.

Sanctioning the Chisora vs. Wallin fight as a title eliminator was a joke. Chisora’s record in his last eight fights is 4-4 since 2020, and his victories have come against these low-level fighters:

Otto Wallin
Joe Joyce: 39
Gerald Washington: 42
Kubrat Pulev: 43

The IBF will order Derek Chisora’s mandatory challenge for Daniel Dubois’ heavyweight world title next month without a final eliminator 🥊 pic.twitter.com/SWGfK69t5b

— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) March 27, 2025