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SPA SESSION
My champagne lunch date with Derek Chisora turned into a naked chat in scorching sauna as he was whipped with leaves
Watch the video as SunSport was invited to Banya, the luxurious bathhouse and spa in Belgravia
“YOU know I do this s*** BUTT-NAKED, Wally.”
That's what Derek Chisora said to me as he peeled off his trunks and carefully arranged ALL of himself face-down on the massage table.
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It was not how I expected a champagne-and-oysters Frank Warren and Chisora media lunch to peak.
But when the generous hall-of-fame promoter suffered a diary clash and had to cancel his presence at the event to promote Del Boy’s February 8 clash with Otto Wallin, things took a turn.
The trademark meal Warren regularly and generously hosts at Milos’ stunning fish restaurant at No1 Regent Street was canned.
But Queensberry’s quick-thinking PR team and 41-year-old Chisora’s manager arranged for a trip to Banya, the luxurious bathhouse and spa in Belgravia.
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Zimbabwe-born millionaire Chisora is a regular at the health club, usually enjoying caviar and dumplings when he is not in training camp for a fight - but always avoiding their potent vodka now he is a teetotal athlete.
His explanation for loving the exhilarating experience is simple: “This place is unbelievable, you jump from being in the scorching hot, to the freezing cold.
“It keeps the heart attack away, it keeps so many problems away from your body and makes you feel great afterwards.
“It keeps me young as well, it helps me keep up with all these young guys.”
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SunSport jokes that he is doing well considering he is 48 and he sticks a giant middle finger up at my face and reminds us age is just a number.
“When I come here after a hard session, I come here for an hour and, instead of feeling tired and beat up, I come back the next day totally normal.
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“I am the guy who controls the heat levels in here. Nobody can beat my record.
“I have four guys in there hitting me with the leaves and it gets so hot that everybody else runs out.
“When you are fit your body can take more heat, so I know the more heat I can take, the better condition I am in.”
Most of the reporters in attendance had never stripped off with the 18st powerhouse, followed him into a pitch-black sauna and been battered with prickly bouquets of birch, oak and eucalyptus leaves, known as veniks, in unbearable heats, while wearing unflattering hats.
I have four guys in there hitting me with the leaves and it gets so hot that everybody else runs out.
Derek Chisora
I don’t think I would have gone through with the challenge for any other British boxer but - outside of the financial and world title riches Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have brought us - I struggle to think of a fighter who has given more of himself to fight fans.
Journalists and fans - even Warren - have been calling for Chisora to retire with his fortune and faculties intact - for almost a decade.
Because we know he has suffered 14 punishing losses, done hundreds of thousands of hard sparring rounds and has two beautiful little girls at home who deserve a coherent daddy to grow up with.
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But the fearless b*****d defies us time and time again with incredible performances and shock wins, most recently over the likes of David Price, Kubrat Pulev and Joe Joyce.
The tone of the introduction gave no indication of how the afternoon would later turn.
Once we sat down in a private room we were told there was water on the way and a basic round-table interview would take place.
Then Del Boy strolled in and stunned us all, in a way that shouldn’t really surprise us anymore.
Thanks to our mutual friend, the Daily Mail’s photographer Kevin Quigley, Chisora pointed across the room and congratulated me on a recent charity white collar bout I won for the Valencia Monroe Ward, at the Royal Brompton hospital.
He went around the room and greeted everyone in his own very unique way, some got an unpublishable insult delivered with genuine affection and humour, one poor cameraman who had never met Chisora was suddenly having his long ginger hair praised.
The complimentary mineral water order, placed before his arrival, was ramped up rapidly too, as Chisora demanded everyone be treated to traditional soup borscht, beef and chicken mince dumplings and an incredible caviar platter.
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Chisora’s generosity does not only extend to promotional tours to flog his 49th fight.
The bad-boy persona he played perfectly at the modest start of his career left a few fans thinking the mask had eaten into his face.
The face-off spits and kisses, the table thrown at Dilllian Whyte, the backstage brawl with David Haye, all painted Chisora as a violent maniac.
But when you are climbing your way up the amateur and small-hall circuit as an African unknown, while the likes of Fury and David Price are miles ahead of you on the circuit, you need to do something to catch the eye.
Nobody as unhinged as Chisora has sometimes appeared to be could be as popular as he is.
Billy Joe Saunders and Chris Eubank Jr loathe each other, Fury and Joshua are in a vicious rivalry and Tony Bellew and Haye were as spiteful as sport can get.
Guess who can break bread with all of those guys - as well as all of his former opponents - Del Boy.
Derek Chisora's last ten fights
- Joe Joyce, points win
- Gerald Washington, points win
- Tyson Fury, stoppage loss
- Kubrat Pulev, points win
- Joseph Parker, points loss
- Joseph Parker, points loss
- Oleksandr Usyk, points loss
- David Price, stoppage win
- Artur Szpilka, KO win
- Senad Gashi, points win
Away from the cameras he regularly asks the boxing press pack how the family of much-missed colleague Ron Lewis is coping following his 2023 passing.
That is another reason I jumped into the steaming underground unknown with the hulk nicknamed War, I feel like I owe him and every moment spent in his company - nude or otherwise - will be well spent.
I also fear that, in ten or twenty years time, Chisora will start showing heartbreaking signs of CTE and dementia and the guilt I will feel at having benefited professionally from covering it all might be slightly softened by lighter memories of time spent together.
Another reason Chisora loves the space run by Alex Lazarev, is his passionate hatred for GOLF.
“Most men go to play golf,” he pointed out. “I hate golf.
“I went to a charity match once and I went to hit my first ball and completely missed it.
“I thought ‘f*** this s***’, gave them the kit back and tried to leave. I hate golf, I gave them some money for the charity and left.
'He tells me to f*** off'
“This is my golf and this is great.”
Chisora has spread the gospel too, Oleksandr Usyk visits on his UK trips and Del Boy has grown the gang outside of the hurt business.
Every Sunday he is joined in the pits of humidity hell by Lethal Bizzle - the steamed-up superstars call themselves the Skint Gang and challenge each other to hotter heats and colder plunges.
Chisora and his pals taking over the private rooms of these palatial rooms - where far daintier Eastern Europeans and uber-rich locals quietly try to rejuvenate - has not scared anyone off.
Banya director Lazarev explained to us: “Derek has been coming to The Bath House since we opened in late 2019.
“I remember very well receiving a call and someone saying ‘Derek Chisora would like to visit your place’.
“Derek likes the relaxed atmosphere and we hope he feels at home here. He is a part of the family now and we are good friends.
When I come here after a hard session, I come here for an hour and, instead of feeling tired and beat up, I come back the next day totally normal.
Derek Chisora
“Banya is not a competitive exercise, but Derek can certainly absorb a lot of heat and is one of the top guys at The Bath House.
"When he does our parenie treatment, he typically does four-hands hands parenie which is when two guys as opposed to just one are warming you through at the same time.
“I think he values banya and parenie in particular for the recovery it offers.
“It’s not about beating or whipping. Aromatic oak and birch leaves are used to move the steam around and warm your body and muscles through fully.
“Sitting in the sauna is one thing, but parenie takes it to another level.”
And, of course, Chisora takes it to another level when he whips off his last small layer of clothing and tells us to sit at the highest and hottest point while he gets his eight-handed horticultural hammering on his back.
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I took a risk and said: “You’ve been coming here for so long now, Del, I thought they would have cut a hole in the middle of that table for you by now.”
He tells me to f*** off.
There have been - and will be - millions of better British boxers than Derek Chisora.
We have had - and are due - more choreographed and mainstream-appeal showmen in the sport.
But I am not sure we have had too many better blokes.
I hope his 50th fight later this year is his last.
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I hope little Angelina and Harare get to enjoy their dad as much as I have been lucky enough to, before the ravages of time and such a punishing career take their toll.
And I hope he knows how grateful we are to have had him, his blood and brain cells and caviar and body, every last bit of it.
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