Boxing
Chisora leaves legacy to remember as heavyweight sea change rolls in
Wardley vs Dubois - DAZN PPV - May 9
Derek Chisora stands in the ring, beaming towards the camera, two curly-haired tween moppets hanging off each of his burly arms.
Twenty-five minutes have passed since the scorecards were called, since the star was handed a defeat to send him into retirement .
Yet Chisora has not shied away from his adoring public. He has not beat a hasty retreat to the solitude of the green rooms backstage.
Instead, long after just about everyone else has gone, with his stage already half-dismantled, he remains as long as anyone wants him.
Wilder edges Chisora in entertaining slugfest
Watch fight highlights here
So departs 'Del Boy', son of a sport he has given blood, sweat and tears for, in sickness and in health, in love and hate and all between.
He may never have been a world champion. He may not secure Hall of Fame passage until it is - for many - considered well overdue.
But he has always, for his fans, for his friends, been about far more than that. Here is a man of many contradictions and controversies.
Yet for all of his flaws, here too is a man capable of great empathy and emotion, of great brilliance and bravery they so often speak to.
On a night where the fairytale farewell did not quite come to pass, where Deontay Wilder edged the affair, it is something to remember.
'Del Boy' secures celebratory melancholia
Boxing has always had its tribalism. Plenty of fighters have built their name first as local heroes; some have let it define their identity.
Yet this was the us-versus-them mentality writ-large, carved into the rockface of the O2 Arena in towering ten-foot letters and more.
The transatlantic rivalry - the old colonial master against the global superpower that eclipsed their heft - has seldom failed to fire fast.
On an evening that delivered big wins for both sides - Amir Anderson, Denzel Bentley, VIddal Riley - this was always going to explode.
Robed in finery, gold trim to match the glitter of his career, Wilder seemed unbowed by the hostile reception handed for his ringwalk.
Instead, he seemed more readily nonplussed by Chisora's response - a jaunty cowboy saunter to the Eagles classic Hotel California .
'War' loves a scene. You don't turn up to a press conference dry-humping a tank turret besides Nigel Farage if you don't want attention.
Clad in hus customary union jack bandana-mask and wide-brimmed hat, he luxuriated in his approach, almost to the point of melancholia.
Because, ultimately, this was a celebratory affair tinged with a sense of finality - a collective realisation that there is no encore to come.
Chisora may yet change his mind, of course. He would be far from the first. Tyson Fury has made a biannual habit out of such theatre.
Yet for a beat, the sense of the last few pages being thumbed all at once hung heavy in the air. The winds of change lingered above.
Then the bell went, Chisora attempted a half-rugby tackle on Wilder's midriff and all hell broke loose for the best part of the next hour.
Wardley and Joshua show passing of the torch
At opposite sides of the ring - one on commentary , one as spectator - Fabio Wardley and Anthony Joshua painted fascinating pictures.
The former, sharp-suited and in typically considerate form, did not seem to live the fight. His head held steady, his stare often calculated.
Save for a mild side-eye disinterest that greeted a clutch of TikTok influencers swanning past, the WBO champion seemed oddly sedate.
By comparison, Joshua - slowly working his way back after last year's personal tragedy - was oft-animated besides promoter Eddie Hearn.
The two-time world champion, fresh off a training stint with old rival-turned-friend Oleksandr Usyk, lived every messy blow inside the ring.
Had Chisora won here, it is perhaps unlikely that Joshua would have found himself called out the way he subsequently was by Wilder.
Yet at the same time, both men would have been credible options for a fighter whose own future at the sport's summit remains opaque.
While Usyk - the only man besides Wardley with any major titles - suggests Joshua could be champion again, the truth is more complex.
There was a sense of a sea change in the air for the heavyweight division back when this bout was announced, the implicit end of an era.
Since then, Wardley has booked Daniel Dubois - a former champion, but still just 28 - while Moses Itauma has spanked Jermaine Franklin.
If Wilder and Joshua do indeed agree to a dance later this year, it will mark an overdue bout between two of the modern era's greats.
But if the former's bout here suggests anything, it is that this gloriously messy curtain call for his opponent may signal the end of an era.
DAZN
Fury, their great rival, will return to the ring in less than a week. Even then, 'The Gypsy King' and his latest comeback is oddly low-wattage.
Whether that delivers is ultimately irrelevant here. Tonight was ultimately about Chisora - and even if he came up short, it is still his night.
Alphaville's classic eighties power ballad Forever Young  echoed around the O2 Arena at the final bell, fighters slumped beneath its melody.
It is tongue-in-cheek - and yet, quietly prophetic too. Chisora has ensured, even in defeat, that he has left with a bang rather than a whimper.
Whether the rest of his generation follow his lead remains to be seen. But as he shakes hands long past the bell here, it seems he will be missed more than most.
Alphaville's Forever Young played as the final bell goes. Wilder raises his arm with a grin.
Watch Wardley vs. Dubois only on DAZN
The WBO world heavyweight title is on the line for Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois on May 9, only on DAZN PPV. Buy as a one-off PPV or included, along with Usyk vs Verhoeven (May 23), with a DAZN Ultimate Tier subscription.
