Wilder Edges Chisora in Split Decision as Both Men Reach 50 Pro Fights

Deontay Wilder returned to winning ways with a split decision victory over Derek Chisora at a sold-out O2 Arena in London, claiming the verdict in both men's 50th professional contest in a breathless, knockdown-filled heavyweight slugfest.

Two judges scored it 115-111 and 115-113 for the former WBC heavyweight champion, while a third had it 115-112 for Chisora, whose record now reads 36-14 with 23 knockouts. Wilder improves to 45-4-1 with 43 stoppages. The bout was billed as '100' to represent their combined professional appearances and was widely expected to mark Chisora's final fight, though the 42-year-old left the question open afterwards.

The two knockdowns Wilder scored came at a price. In Round 8, after dropping Chisora with his trademark right hand, referee Mark Bates deducted a point from Wilder for pushing Chisora through the ropes, altering the arithmetic on two of the three scorecards. Chisora, told he was two points behind heading into Round 11, found a knockdown of his own, but the late surge proved insufficient. Wilder controlled the final round to seal the verdict.

Chisora arrived at The O2 via the London Underground, pushing his young son Zion in a stroller through the main public entrance. It was his 11th professional appearance at the venue. At the York Hall weigh-in, he stepped on the scales at a career-heaviest 266.7lbs, fully 40lbs heavier than Wilder's 226.4lbs, and produced a Tyson Fury mask at the face-off to taunt the American over his trilogy losses. Sky Bet had made Chisora the 1/2 favourite; Wilder was listed at 13/8.

Chaos arrived almost immediately when a first-round wrestling exchange prompted one of Chisora's cornermen to enter the ring, setting the tone for a contest that never settled into anything conventional. Chisora pressed forward throughout, winging shots to head and body, while Wilder worked behind straight rights and uppercuts.

Pre-fight, Chisora had told Ariel Helwani: "It's a retirement fight for me, but subconsciously it's a retirement fight for him." When pressed on his future afterwards, he deflected: "I'm going to go home with the boss lady and see. I'm going to go home and drop the kids, do the school run." British heavyweight Fabio Wardley, who had publicly supported Chisora's retirement before the bout, told BBC Sport: "Derek Chisora has given his heart and soul to the sport. After all the entertainment he has given us, he deserves to sit down and have five minutes to himself."

For Wilder, the victory arrives at a pivotal moment. The 40-year-old from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, had lost four of his previous six fights, including defeats to Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang, before stopping Tyrrell Herndon in seven rounds in June 2025. With negotiations already under way for a summer fight against unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, Saturday's decision positions Wilder as a credible challenger heading into that potential meeting.

The night also marked the inaugural show under MF Pro, the professional sub-division launched by Misfits Boxing and promoted by KSI and the Sauerland brothers, Kalle and Nisse, in association with Queensberry Promotions, broadcast on DAZN pay-per-view. Viddal Riley improved to 14-0 with a unanimous decision win over Mateusz Masternak for the EBU European cruiserweight title, a bout that also carried IBF world title eliminator status, while Denzel Bentley stopped Venezuela's Endry Saavedra in Round 7 to claim the interim WBO middleweight title.