Derek Chisora vs. Kubrat Pulev live fight updates, results, highlights from 2022 boxing card

British heavyweight hero Derek Chisora will step into the ring for the 45th time in his storied career when he faces Kubrat Pulev at the O2 Arena on Saturday.

Chisora is facing fellow veteran Pulev for the second time, having dropped a split decision to the Bulgarian when fighting for the European title back in 2016.

The 38-year-old has since been involved in a succession of thrilling contests against the likes of Dillian Whyte, Carlos Takam, OIeksandr Usyk and Joseph Parker.

However, Chisora’s desire to continue pitting his wits against the division’s best fighters means he is on a three-fight losing streak. To do that, he must beat a man who has only lost twice in his career  — to Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua at that.

MORE: Join DAZN to watch Chisora vs. Pulev 2

The Sporting News will be providing live updates, highlights and commentary from Chisora vs. Pulev 2 below.

Chisora vs. Pulev 2 live results, updates

Round 5: The pace slows slightly from Chisora, as it must over this distance. But when he takes his foot slightly off the pedal, he’s fighting Pulev’s fight. Some smooth combinations from the Bulgarian are enough to give him the round. Although, he looks pretty tired on his stool as that cut gets some treatment. Chisora landed to the body again in that round and he’ll hope that’s money in the bank for later on.

SN unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Pulev (Chisora (47-48 Pulev)

Round 4: Lovely solid jab to start the round from Chisora, who then gets home a couple of body shots. Now that trademark overhand right comes back into play. This is better from the home favourite. Don Charles in Chisora’s corner is urging him to keep his work tight. The crowd roar at another winging right. It doesn’t really seem to land but there is a nick on Pulev’s left cheek, before Chisora goes back to the body. 

SN unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Chisora (Chisora 38-38 Pulev)

Round 3: Pulev has opened up enough space to get his work off now. There’s always a home for the uppercut and some short, sharp right hands catch the eye. The Bulgarian is also looking nice and light on his feet at times. Good left into the midsection from Chisora before McDonnell stops them for another chat. Pulev takes the round but Chisora won’t mind seeing him complaining to the referee.

SN unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Pulev (Chisora 28-29 Pulev)

Round 2: Not much to choose between them in that round, but Pulev gets the jab going and he’s catching Chisora on the way in. The Brit needs more head movement and more of his own jab than we saw there.

SN unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Pulev (Chisora 19-19 Pulev)

Round 1: Careful what you wish for, Marcus. Referee McDonnell called time out midway through a scrappy first round with a lot of holding. But Chisora is happy with this sort of scrap. He’s clattering shots into Pulev’s torso whenever he get the chances and the Bulgarian is getting neither the space or time to get his educated left lead going. Chisora lands flush with a couple of jabs of his own and rounds things over with an overhand right. 

SN unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Chisora

10:12 p.m. BST/5:12 p.m. ET: Final instructions time. “Let’s go to work,” says referee Marcus McDonnell. Here we go, we’re going round-by-round.

10:08 p.m. BST/5:08 p.m. ET: If Chisora hadn’t insisted retirement is not in his thoughts, this would certainly feel like a farewell. He’s ringwalking to You Were Always On My Mind. There’s an awful lot of love in the room and he takes a long walk around the ring. Now he’s leaning down and talking to his daughters. Bizarrely, given what’s about to unfold, this is all really quite beautiful. Crowd and fighter as one – can they help get him over the line tonight?

10:02 p.m. BST/5:02 p.m. ET: Sweet Caroline is blasting out at the O2, which means it’s almost time. Pulev is favourite to repeat the points win he had over Chisora in 2016. There’s an argument to say Chisora has improved since then, showing a more explosive side in his wins over Carlos Takam and Artur Szpilka, and Pulev is on a gentle slide. At least you could definitely have said that before Chisora looked worryingly diminished down the stretch against Joseph Parker last time out.

If the gap has closed, has it closed enough? There certainly won’t be much of a gap in the ring, with Chisora expected to station himself on Pulev’s chest and bang away early on. The visitor is out of his dressing room and ready to go.

9:40 p.m. BST/4:40 p.m. ET: Hearn says there’s been an issue with hand-wrapping backstage, with Pulev having to redo his wraps. This sort of caper is particularly on-trend in British boxing right now, isn’t it? Still, we should be ringwalking at around 10 p.m. and, as the tweet below illustrates, Pulev looks pretty relaxed about proceedings. 

Cool, calm & collected 📸#ChisoraPulev2 pic.twitter.com/mUSNt06Ede

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) July 9, 2022

Israil Madrimov vs. Michel Soro technical draw after gruesome head clash

9:36 p.m. BST/4:36 p.m. ET: On DAZN’s broadcast, Tony Bellew and David Haye both think the decision to call off the fight was premature. Perhaps the sheer amount of blood teeming from Soro’s brow unduly influenced things. “The WBA are probably going to order a third fight and that’s no good to anybody,” says promoter Eddie Hearn. 

9:31 p.m. BST/4:31 p.m. ET: Madrimov was looking to build on that excellent second round but the heads come together early in the third and that’s a deep, horrible cut above Soro’s left eye. Blood absolutely everywhere! The ringside doctor and referee Steve Gray understandably that we can’t go on. Because we’ve not completed four rounds, that goes in the books as a technical draw. Will they do it again? It’s an unsatisfactory ending but you’d think Madrimov will press his case to go on to bigger and better things.

📍 The O2 Arena

🥊 #ChisoraPulev2

🔜 “Total Carnage” pic.twitter.com/oWyqGvywc0

— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 UK 🇬🇧 (@sportingnewsuk) July 9, 2022

9:28 p.m. BST/4:28 p.m. ET: Big second round for Madrimov, who slips inside Soro’s jab to land a left hook and then a big right hand. His foe is wobbled again, but the bell is almost two minutes away this time. Soro’s experience allows him to see out the round but there’s constant, intelligent pressure from Madrimov, whose snaking jab is proving hard to read for Soro. The Frenchman folds up briefly on the ropes, the body work is also good from the Uzbek star.

9:15 p.m. BST/4:15 p.m. ET: It’ll be all eyes on Chisora and Pulev soon enough, but the chief support also comes with a score to settle and it might just steal the show. Former amateur standout Israil Madrimov faced Michel Soro in his eighth fight in the paid ranks last December and a thriller ensued. Madrimov started quickly but faded badly in the middle rounds before a thrilling rally in the ninth. Soro sagged in trouble on the ropes and the referee waved the contest off.

The only catch was that, in the commotion, Madrimov and the referee had not heard the bell sound. The victory stood, much to the fury of Team Soro and the WBA ordered a rematch. It doubles up as an eliminator for a crack at the organisation’s world championship belt. That, like all the main straps in the super-welterweight division, resides with American superstar Jermell Charlo.

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Ramla Ali beats Marisa Rojas on points

9:02 p.m. BST/4:02 p.m. ET: There are plenty of Ramla Ali fans in the O2 tonight and they received that result rapturously. In a learning fight, Ali won every round on the referee’s card and moves to 6-0.

8:48 p.m. BST/3:48 p.m. ET: Ramla Ali is halfway through an eight-rounder against Marisa Rojas. The Somali-born British super-bantamweight is a model, racial equality activist and author when she’s not in the boxing gym. Those latter endeavours are spent with the esteemed Manny Robles who, it must be said, doesn’t seem particularly impressed in the corner even though Ali is banking rounds from this viewpoint.

Caoimhin Agyarko beats Lukasz Maciec via unanimous decision

8:20 p.m. BST/3:20 p.m. ET: Agyarko would have liked to get the stoppage and become the first man to beat the teak-tough Pole inside the distance but there was plenty to enjoy about that performance. Some of his variety and punch selection was excellent at times, even if the Belfast man’s dominance did lead to a couple of complacent defensive moments. Before the scores were read out, Agyarko enjoyed a bit of a post-fight debrief over the ropes with Conor Benn. He has the WBA international belt to take home and the prospect of bigger nights to come.

I am here with my beautiful family and ready for WAR 🙏🏾 #warchisora #ChisoraPulev2 pic.twitter.com/PuhqwOvgdx

— Derek Chisora 🥊 (@DerekWarChisora) July 9, 2022

8 p.m. BST/3 p.m. ET: Maciec has never been stopped over the course of four career defeats but he has also not boxed below the 154lbs limit since 2016. As such, you’d think some of Agyarko’s rapid-fire body work will start to take a toll at some point. His lead left hook is also in very good order, although he is open to the overhand right, which is allowing Maciec to keep him honest as we move into the final four rounds.

7:45 p.m. BST/2:45 p.m. ET: Chisora is in the building, looking very relaxed as he arrived with his daughter in tow. In the ring, undefeated Irishman Caoimhin Agyarko is in action against the experienced Lukasz Maciec. It’s a first fight since dropping down from middleweight to super-welterweight for Agyarko and he’s got through some sharp work so far.

MORE: Join DAZN to watch Chisora vs. Pulev 2

Fabio Wardley stops Chris Healey in round two

7:25 p.m. BST/2:25 p.m. ET: Not an ideal situation for Wardley but he certainly made the best of it. The Ipswich man wastes very few punches and he could not miss the straight right against his southpaw foe. That set up a first-round knockdown and, after a similarly spiteful flurry put Healey on the canvas in the second, his corner had seen enough. Afterwards, Wardley commends his 11th-hour replacement for having “a big set of cajones”. 

7:15 p.m. BST/2:15 p.m. ET: Our first heavyweight action of the evening is about to get underway. Undefeated prospect Fabio Wardley (13-0) shouldn’t have too many problems with Chris Healey (9-9), even if a late replacement southpaw is no one’s idea of a good time.

7 p.m. BST/2 p.m. ET: What of Pulev, the bookmakers’ favourite who has only ever lost previously when contesting the unified heavyweight championship. The most recent of those forays for world honours came north-west of the O2 at Wembley Arena, where he grinned and gurned his way through a nine-round battering from Anthony Joshua.

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6:45 p.m. BST/1:45 p.m. ET: London’s O2 Arena has proved to be a happy hunting ground for Chisora in the past, winning six out of his seven contests at the Greenwich venue. The best of those was a barnstorming eight-round win over Carlos Takam in July 2018 — a victory that probably does much to explain why he’s still being granted the opportunity to mix it with the likes of Pulev. A repeat display tonight would absolutely bring the house down.

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6:20 p.m. BST/1:20 p.m. ET: So, here we go then. Once more into the breach with Derek Chisora and all the potential mayhem that suggests. It’s with good reason that this bill has been dubbed ‘Total Carnage’ by promoters Matchroom. It must be said, when Chisora and Pulev met six years ago, it was a bit of a forgettable affair aside from the final scorecards being dramatically close. However, since then, Chisora has been involved in a decent handful of thrillers. Is he ready to take us to that place again?

6:00 p.m. BST/1:00 p.m. ET: Hello and welcome to The Sporting News’ live coverage of Derek Chisora vs. Kubrat Pulev 2.