The two veterans put on an entertaining, if not technically perfect, battle, with both fighters scoring knockdowns and landing power punches throughout.
It might not have been Larry Holmes-Ken Norton or Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield, but considering the ages and fading abilities of the two forty-plus bombers, it was a pretty good scrap.
Wilder scored two knockdowns (round eight and eleven), but lost a point for pushing Chisora to the floor, while Chisora scored an eleventh-round knockdown but didn't have Wilder in serious trouble.
Wilder won by scores of 115-111 and 115-113 (I scored 114-113 for Wilder, with a dissenting score for Chisora of 115-112.
Chisora announced his retirement after the fight, but this is boxing, so I'm not counting on that for a while.
Wilder suddenly has some doors open after his biggest win in years.
Chisora was very high in the IBF rankings, and Wilder's win might put him in the running for WBA/WBC/IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk, who considered defending against Wilder earlier this year.
Wilder could also finally fight Anthony Joshua in a long-awaited fight, which might make Wilder more money (especially if he returns to Great Britain) than a challenge of Usyk, and a fight that he has a higher chance of winning.
I know these fights aren't classic, and the old-timer tours don't appeal to some, but I don't mind them within reason.
Matched carefully against each other, fun fights can happen, and the chances of someone getting hurt are less than fighting a younger contender near their peak.
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