‘He scares the life out of me’ – Eddie Hearn not going to tell Derek Chisora, 37, to retire with Brit ‘fitter than ever’

EDDIE HEARN is not about to tell Derek Chisora to retire… because he might be too afraid to.

The heavyweight veteran, 37, has been bullish in refusing to hang his gloves up, despite three straight losses.

Derek Chisora pictured at talkSPORT with Eddie Hearn

Instead, he returns on July 9 in a rematch of the 2016 fight he lost to Kubrat Pulev.

Chisora, who has thrown tables at press conferences and brawled with opponents before, has a legion of experienced heads in his camp.

And Hearn is among them in believing the unpredictable Londoner still has more to give.

He told SunSport: “There’s a lot of people around Derek Chisora that care about him – Tony Bellew, Anthony Joshua, David Coldwell, Don Charles.

READ MORE ON BOXING

FACED THE USYK

AJ ‘BAFFLED’ by his performance against Usyk as Hearn teases tactics change

BIG PRIZES

Play the Sun Vegas wheel for FREE every day between midday and midnight

“All these people that know him inside and out, they know where he’s at and they know how he’s looking in training.

“And he loves to fight but the problem for Derek is he just wants the biggest fights available and unfortunately at that level you can lose or get knocked out.

“But I’m not going to tell Derek what to do or what not to do, he scares the life out of me.

“But, I also don’t believe that he should retire.”

FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS

Chisora is without a win two years but that is thanks to his love for risky – yet financially rewarding – fights.

He lost to current unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, 35, in 2020 before consecutive points defeats to Joseph Parker, 30, last year.

His other recent setback came in 2018 after being knocked out in round 11 while ahead in his rematch with Dillian Whyte, 34.

It leaves Chisora primed for similar mega-fights if he can beat Pulev, 41, at the O2 Arena and return to winning ways.

Hearn said: “A lot of people say, ‘Chisora’s fighting again, he’s lost his last three’.

“Yeah, he lost to Joseph Parker twice, once could have gone either way and the other was against Oleksandr Usyk.

“And by the way, before that he lost to Dillian Whyte and he was winning the fight going into the 11th round and ended up getting knocked out by a peach of a left hook.

“But all of these fights are competitive and all of these fights are exciting and if he beats Pulev – which I think he can – what will people say then?”