The December 3rd main event between Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora is hot garbage, and the co-feature pitting Daniel Dubois against Kevin Lerena is decent at best. There are some reasonably well-matched tussles on the undercard, however, as Julius Julianis brings word of the supporting cast. Yvan Mendy takes on Denys Berinchyk for the EBU lightweight title, Thomas Patrick Ward meets Otabek Kholmatov in a WBA featherweight final eliminator, and Callum Johnson returns to fight Thomas Faure for the EBU light heavyweight belt.
Mendy (47-5-1, 22 KO) has followed a similar career trajectory as countryman Michel Soro, namely by giving a well-regarded fighter hell before grazing on the local scene for the next few years. He upset Luke Campbell in 2015, lost a decision in their 2018 rematch, and his best win since came against a man in Jaider Parra who got obliterated in 38 seconds by Fazliddin Gaibnazarov.
Still, he’s a decent fighter and Berinchyk (16-0, 9 KO) needs to get off his ass. He was a 2012 silver medalist, but his only noteworthy accomplishments in seven years as a pro were beating Isa Chaniev by decision and stopping Artem Lobov in bare-knuckle.
We’ve talked about Ward (33-0-1, 5 KO) vs. Kholmatov (10-0, 9 KO) before, and it is far and away the evening’s best matchup. Experience vs. youth, complacency vs. ambition; plenty of fun storylines here, and the winner gets a crack at either Leo Santa Cruz or Leigh Wood.
Johnson (20-1, 14 KO) hasn’t fought since barely scraping past Server Emurlaev last October; COVID kept him from fighting Joe Smith Jr in January and an ordered clash with Joshua Buatsi fell through after Frank Warren won the purse bid. Faure (21-4-1, 2 KO) hasn’t lost since getting knocked out by Eddy Lacrosse in their 2018 rematch and looks like a reasonable test to see where Johnson is after that poor performance and long layoff.