Brutality and drama could be on the menu when Joe “The Juggernaut” Joyce and Derek “War” Chisora meet at the O2 Arena tonight (July 27) in London.

Chisora claims it is his swansong at a venue he has made his own in recent years, completing his turn from a spiky and unpredictable villain to sometimes exciting hero.

Chisora is a battle-scarred 40 years of age, while Joyce is 38. 

Both are known for being able to take punishment, perhaps more than they are for dishing it out. 

Over the years, Chisora has slowly eroded and there have been numerous calls for him to pack it in, including by those who have continued to promote him, but there’s still market value to his name and he can still pass a medical and beat fighters at domestic level and even, possibly, some on the peripheries or the second or third tiers of heavyweight contenders. 

Joyce’s erosion, predictable as it was, has been more stark. He was upset by Zhilei Zhang first time around in April last year, squashed by Zhang in their September rematch and looked a spent bullet when he returned against Kash Ali in March. The Ali fight did little to suggest that it was merely a case of Zhang having his measure. 

Joyce has weighed in almost 30lbs heavier than Chisora, which is of no surprise, although Chisora has come in four pounds lighter than he did for Tyson Fury for their ill-advised third fight which resulted in Chisora soaking up 10 rounds of pain before being put out of his misery. 

The writing was on the wall for what was going to happen there. Fury was an elite heavyweight at the peak of his powers, essentially topping up an old friend and rival’s pension fund but making him pay a price for it. There was only one winner that night.

That is not the case here, in part because of Joyce’s downwards trajectory.  

Here, the one-time seemingly immovable object takes on a force that had never quite managed to be irresistible. 

If the Joyce who outlasted and ultimately bashed Joseph Parker in 2022 is back then it could be a gruesome beat down. If the ambitious Chisora who bombed out Carlos Takam in 2018 shows up he could crack a “shot” Joyce.

But, looking at their most recent bouts, if the Joyce who fought Ali and the Chisora who toiled against Gerald Washington is on hand, it could be horrible.

Despite my concerns for both in the long-term and my belief that this fight could hurt them both in the future, there are plenty who are excited about the collision. Of course, they’ve both passed their medicals through the British Boxing Board of Control, but we also know that there are no medicals in the world that can reveal what you need to see to make informed decisions over the long-term future of a fighter.

Maybe the best-case scenario is a fight where neither man gets hurt.

However, that seems to be one of the least likely eventualities. Joyce has possibly eroded sufficiently enough to mean he is not the destructive menace that would have broken down Chisora in the mid-late rounds two or three years ago. 

Chisora, coming in light, might allow him to nab rounds with his hand speed and mobility but there could be problems if he sticks around on the inside and gets involved with the heavier-hitting Joyce. Also, if Joyce has the discipline to box from range he could win the fight with the jab, one-twos and one-two-left hooks that, for all of Chisora’s pressure, he might not have the industry or ability to stay out of the way of.

Remarkably, I see a scenario with Chisora winning, but I feel Joyce has more ways to win and, ultimately, Chisora is further down the line to the exit door than Joyce, so it is over to Joyce to march him out, but I’m not sure he will stop the man they call “Del Boy.”