Finchley’s evergreen heavyweight Derek Chisora has hinted he will give himself three more fights before he finally calls it a day.
The 39-year-old grinded his way to an unanimous 10-round points victory (97-94, 98-93, 96-94) over fellow veteran Gerald Washington, 41, at The O2, North Greenwich on the undercard of former Finchley amateur Anthony Joshua's seven-round win over Robert Helenius.
In his previous outing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last December Chisora was stopped in 10 rounds by Manchester’s WBC world champion Tyson Fury but his latest appearance saw him claim his 34th victory in 47 outings.
“I didn’t enjoy that myself,” Chisora told iFL TV.
“It was a bad bad performance. It was so bad that’s not me. Everything was not right. The only thing right was my outfit but everything else from round one to round 10 was alright.”
Chisora later responded to the pundits and fans were again demanding for his retirement.
“Everybody always asks that,” he added. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll make something.
“I can say what I want to do but God will tell me no do this. So I’ll pray on it for a couple of weeks and see what God wants me to do exactly, but it’s not retirement yet. I’m not stopping, not yet. It’s not the time yet.
“If I knew how to be a gardener I’d have been a gardener from day one, but I’m a fighter and this is what we know. You can’t decide to tell a fighter you have to stop fighting now because you’re going to be a gardener because we don’t know that crap!
“From day one we’re fighting in the amateur game and then we go pro. This is what we know. We don’t know how to type on a computer or be a receptionist. We don’t know that.
"We are fighters. Every fighter retires, and when they retire guess what they do? They go back in the gym and start training other fighters. Do you understand, I’m a fighter.
“I’ll be honest with you. I’ve got three more fights and then I’m out. I want to get to 50.”
Former unified world heavyweight champion Joshua, 33, is set to meet America’s former WBC world title holder Deontay Wilder, 37, sometime later in the year with Saudi Arabia the expected destination following his victory over Finland’s Helenius.
Helenius stepped in at short notice to replace Joshua’s original opponent and bitter domestic rival Dillian Whyte who failed a voluntary drugs test.
The 39-year-old, who suffered a first-round KO defeat to Wilder in New York last October, arrived in London seven days after beating Mike Mielonen in three rounds in Olavinlinna, Finland.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here