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LONDON. — Zimbabwe-born British boxer Derek Chisora battered his way back to the fringe of world heavyweight title contention with a relentless brutalising of Davd Price on Saturday night.

“War” now his nickname instead of Del Boy, Chisora came out with all guns blazing.

The salvo lasted for three rounds and two minutes, long enough to sink Price to his unfulfilled career knees.

Albeit not the single massive blow which has been his undergoing at key moments earlier in his career.

The heavyweight clash lived up to the hype after Joseph Parker was forced to pull out with illness, as both men fired at will from the first bell.

A ducking and weaving Chisora found it easy to get close to Price and repeatedly hurt the Liverpudlian with hooks. Price was moments from hitting the canvas at the end of the third when he fired back at Chisora, momentarily rocking his rival as the bell rang.

Chisora resumed his position as the hunter in the fourth and under heavy fire, Price’s knees eventually buckled against the ropes. Price got to his feet, but with the 36-year-old supporting his weight on the ropes, his corner decided to throw in the towel.

Chisora praised Price after the fight for stepping up at late notice and said he wanted to reschedule his showdown with Joseph Parker. “(Price) buzzed me, caught me with a beautiful uppercut,” Chisora said in the ring. “If we can get Joseph Parker ASAP, I hope this time he doesn’t get a spider bite.”

While Chisora feels he should step in with former WBO champion Parker, his manager David Haye has other ideas for his fighter. Haye suggested a clash with heavyweight newcomer Oleksandr Usyk was Chisora’s best option at getting another world title shot.

“I like the Oleksandr Usyk, fight, he’s mandatory for the WBO, that could be a fantastic fight,” he said. “If he fights Oleksandr Usyk, he’s right up there for a heavyweight title shot. A title shot is what he wants.”

Price had weathered a serious of massive right hands from the start and it took a double whammy to put him down in the fourth, an uppercut and a hook.

Still he was able to drag that huge frame upright but referee Howard Foster was alarmed. Even as he asked Price if he was alright to continue — and doubting the nodding response — Price’s cornermen threw in the towel.

The end of the road, perhaps, for Price but a corner turned for Chisora.

His manager and former heavyweight champion David Haye said: “There is a now good chance of Derek getting a world title shot next year as one of two of the belts fall vacant.”’

Chisora made his entrance as usual with his face concealed by a red, white and blue Union flag under a white hood to match his embossed robe.

Price, of course, was in red.

Chisora, befitting his new pseudonym, went on the attack from the start, clearly winning the first even though he charged into three or four meaty punches from Price late in the round.

Chisora was warned twice for low blows, one so low it might have performed a cartilage operation on Price’s knee.

No doubt to the surprise of Chisora and most of the audience, Price absorbed a succession of huge rights in the third, any one of which might have put him down and perhaps out in the past.

More of the same in the fourth proved too much, too heavy, too redolent of serious harm.

Price finally went down from a pair of rights — uppercut and hook. Gamely he rose to his fight and referee Foster was debating whether to call a halt when the white towel came fluttering across the ring. — Mailonline.