Promoter Kalle Sauerland believes it might be time to rethink Dereck Chisora’s career path and build him back up slowly after the Hampstead heavyweight failed to regain the European heavyweight title.

‘Del Boy’ Chisora, who is trained by St Pancras’ head coach CJ Hussein, was on the wrong end of a split decision after 12 rounds against the Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev in Hamburg on Saturday.

It was his sixth professional defeat in 31 outings and it also cost him a crack at IBF world champion Anthony Joshua.

Now former Kilburn schoolboy Sauerland - who has promoted Chisora along with his brother Nisse since December - is determined to plot the next move correctly.

“It’s the start of the world with CJ and I,” said Sauerland. “Don’t forget he [Chisora] walked into the Vitali Klitschko world title fight very early [in 2012].

“I’m not critical of his previous promoter, Frank Warren, who is a great promoter and has picked the right fights for many more challengers over the years - but I still think he was raced a bit.

“With the Klitschko fight he put up 12 good rounds and through there he made a name for himself. But he went straight into another big fight instead of saying ‘right, we got out of that Klitschko one and took 12 rounds there’ and cementing those basics. I don’t think that ever happened.

“He was rushed from one big-money fight to the next one. Instead of progressively building his career, Dereck has left himself building on a basis of losses.

“Del Boy will go away and learn from this, for sure. It wasn’t a learning fight, it was a big fight. If he won he could have walked into an Anthony Joshua fight. Unfortunately Dereck walked into a guy who was on top of his game.”

Hussein added: “Dereck boxed really well. I have got to take my hat off to Pulev. He boxed exceptionally well - he’s tough, had great balance and used his jab really well.

“He kept Dereck unbalanced a little bit but overall it was a great performance by both fighters.

“Dereck can come back from this. A few more fights, then he may get a rematch with Pulev but it’s up to Kalle and Nisse Sauerland to make this happen.

“Obviously Dereck is very disappointed. The referee was a bit poor with his performance, which played a huge factor throughout the fight.”