'Chisora's boxing career has been a wild ride – there’s sure to be more madness'

Derek Chisora bows out of fighting in Britain on Saturday night. What a rollercoaster of a ride the last 18 years have been.

It is almost to the day that he had his first fight with us all the way back then. There’s no chance I’d have believed you back in 2007 that we would be sitting together at a press conference in 2025.

Yet here we are as he prepares to face Otto Wallin in his 49th professional fight and his last on UK soil. We’ve had some moments over the years. Some real highs, some big lows. There’s been moments of joy and fall outs to match.

It’s never easy to deal with Derek but he has in the last couple of years proven me wrong. I’ve been a loud voice that he should have retired at least a couple of years ago. This is a hard game and he’s had 13 defeats, some vicious wars and looked his age.

But he came back and beat Joe Joyce in an epic fight last year and showed there’s still something left in the tank. It will come to an end for him after fight No 50 though. It has to.

You can’t keep having the wars he has had and leave the sport safely. A couple more bouts to bring down the curtain is fine. This isn’t an easy fight against Wallin and it should be an entertaining one at Co-Op Live in Manchester.

Wallin has only lost twice and that was to Tyson Fury in a bloody battle and then Anthony Joshua stopped him last year. But he’s a good southpaw with amateur pedigree and in another era may have been in the mix for world titles.

This is an eliminator for the IBF heavyweight title so the winner will be pushing for a mandatory shot at Daniel Dubois. Of course, it’s also a fight involving Derek so you never know what to expect.

It has been a wild ride with him and there’s sure to be some more madness before we reach the end.