ONE OF A KIND
TWENTY-TWO male finalists fought for ABA titles inside the Wembley Conference Centre on December 2, 2005. Some, like Tony Jeffries, James DeGale, Anthony Crolla and Tony Bellew, would go on to win Olympic medals and/or major professional belts. Only one remains active today.
“They’re all pussies,” Derek Chisora says when asked why he’s still fighting when the rest do not. “They found a way out. All these fighters will tell you they’re retired, thank you very much. But they were looking for a way out from day one. Their loved ones will tell them to retire and they think, ‘You know what? You’re right, I should retire.’ But that’s what they wanted from the start. I would say the same to their faces: They’re all f**king pussies. I will retire when I want to f**king retire.”
That notion of retirement, or at least being advised to, irks the soon-to-be 38-year-old contender.
“If you start thinking of retirement while you’re still in this game, you’re going to get injured. You lose focus. You’re not hungry anymore because you’re looking for a way out when you’re still in it. Retirement has never entered my mind.”
“I WILL RETIRE WHEN I WANT TO F**KING RETIRE”
There are fighters and then there’s the rest of us. Fighters, by virtue of what they do and what they put themselves through to do it, are different. They’re stronger, braver, barmier. They simply have to be to exist in such a savage
