Derek Chisora threatens walkout in unexpected row over ring walk priority

Derek Chisora has threatened to pull out of his heavyweight showdown against Joseph Parker this weekend in an unexpected row over who walks to the ring second at the Manchester Arena on Saturday night.

There seemed to be no sign of any drama at Friday’s weigh-in – with Chisora scaling 250.8lbs while his opponent came in a little lighter at 241.2lbs – while the traditional staredown also passed off without incident.

But Chisora said in his final pre-fight interview on Sky Sports: “They want to do a coin flip, who comes in the ring first and who comes in the ring last. Either I come in second or I go home right now.”

Chisora’s manager and former foe David Haye lost the resulting coin toss after the Briton had stormed off and Parker elected to walk out after his rival, leading to an apparent impasse and a nervous wait for the next 24 hours.

Promoter Eddie Hearn said: “We all agreed and signed that we’d do a coin toss on the day of the weigh-in to establish who would walk first and second.

“Unfortunately Derek being Derek decided he’s walking second, walked off, wouldn’t do the coin toss. Horrifically, David Haye on behalf of Derek Chisora lost the coin toss and Andy Lee and Joseph Parker said ‘we will walk second’.

“Right now Derek Chisora is refusing to fight unless he walks second. I don’t think the fight’s in jeopardy but I’m very interested to see how it’s going to play out. One way or another, it’ll work itself out.

“It might be in the next 10 minutes, it might be at five to 10 tomorrow night.

“If this is not resolved, we’re going to get to a point tomorrow in the arena where Derek Chisora’s told it’s time for his ring walk and he may not leave his dressing room. Or he might just go home tonight.

“We’ll see what happens. It’s going to be fun, just another day at the office.”