It wasn’t hard to tell that Robert Filipovic was a late replacement for Dereck Chisora.
Matchroom Sport’s latest signing, Chisora, was initially slated to take on a different opponent but was forced to accept a short notice stand-in in the form of Filipovic.
In Chisora’s first fight since his defeat to Dillian Whyte last December, the 33-year-old encountered precisely zero resistance as he coasted towards victory.
In truth, ‘Del Boy’ likely had much more testing sparring sessions in his time than his tune-up clash with a visibly out of shape Filipovic proved.
The Croatian fighter saw two points deducted as he employed holding tactics in a bid to survive as long as possible against the more accomplished Chisora, who found it so routine that he treated himself to a few bitchslaps in the corner during the fourth round.
The end was near and, in the fifth, the referee had seen enough after a relatively innocuous shot landed but, in reality, Filipovic was simply too exhausted to defend himself when his sole cornerman Tommy McCormack, who was Conor McGregor’s cut-man against Floyd Mayweather last month, threw in the towel at the exact moment that the referee stepped in.
Next up for Chisora will be a November 4 showdown with Agit Kayabel for the European heavyweight title in Monte Carlo, which the Brit will hope results in a rematch with Whyte at some point in 2018.
“I had enough power to take this guy out, but I wanted to enjoy it,” Chisora said after the fight.
“This was just to see if I can still walk towards the ring, and I enjoyed it.
“That was the whole point of this fight, fair credit to him, he came in for the first two mins of the first round and I felt his power.
“He wanted to go six rounds, and say he has gone six rounds with Dereck Chisora.”
