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Deontay Wilder vs. Bermane Stiverne- Wrap up!
What a pretty good night of boxing it was for the WBC heavyweight title between now ex-champion Bermane Stiverne vs. the new WBC champion, Deontay Wilder.
Of course, as many of you have already known by now, Wilder beat Stiverne in a 12 round unanimous decision. It's not a fight that would go down in the record books like Tyson/Douglas, Bowe/Holyfield or Ali/Frazier, but it was good enough.
My initial prediction was that Stiverne would knock Wilder out between the 7th and 8th round. But that prediction was depending on how Stiverne reacts, or reacted, when hit by Wilder.
We saw how that would play out in that event: Stiverne got hit by Wilder in the 2nd round, and then again in the 4th, wobbled on both occasions, and in one instance go down (albeit at the end of the round after the bell rang, so it shouldn't have been called a knockdown), and never really got back into the fight as he didn't engage Wilder the way it was anticipated. He simply did not want to engage fully after he got clipped. That's just that!
Stiverne winning by knock out somewhere in the middle of the fight was also based on the notion of how Stiverne was behind on points vs. Ray Austin and against Chris Arreola in their second fight.
Stiverne has a habit of starting slow and we presumed that his power would carry late and because Wilder was untested at that high of a level, he would crumple under the pressure. Also, we assumed that now, seeing previously what Stiverne's hunger was against Arreola in their second fight, that he would really want to keep his titles at all cost- and really go in, and go in hard!
But, he did not muster that kind of hunger. He was simply put on the end of a jab by Wilder, who also got hit by Stiverne a few times and decided to stay on the outside and not engage to any large extent.
All of this was probably an unfair assumption on Wilder's part, because we didn't really know what Wilder would do under those conditions because he never fought in those conditions before. But, Wilder didn't give us much to go on previously as his resume was a litany of fringe contenders and guys that never really had a chance at being elite fighters anyway, all except one or two. So, it was a toss up in that respect. But, it was up to Stiverne to make that case that this would be how this would play out. A case he did not make, clearly!
So, what we have now, on the business side of things is this, in that Al Haymon controls a portion of the heavyweight titles. Yes! Al Haymon has a huge say in heavyweight boxing. Don King is on the side-line unless their is a rematch clause and Stiverne can muster up the courage to go all out, in the face of Wilder's power.
What happens now for Wilder? Who knows? But, we hope for Stiverne's sake that he does in fact have a rematch clause in place, because he may want to exercise that right about now if he feels he could have physically performed better than what he did tonight. And he deserves it! Because, let's face it, both fighters could have done a little more in that fight. Wilder surprised me, rather than shocked me, with his boxing ability and also with his ability to go 12 rounds. But, it wasn't twelve hard rounds- as said before, Stiverne is a conservative type of counter-puncher that starts off late.
So, can Stiverne learn from this fight with Wilder? If he has a rematch clause, will he use it and take Wilder on once again, learn from those mistakes and make the fight more interesting? Or, will he end up like how Chris Arreola did vs. him the second time around, and lose by crushing KO??
We will have to see about all of this. But, what should be said is congratulations for Deontay "The Bronze Bomber" Wilder. He won this title, no controversy. Fair and square.
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Originally Posted by erics44
lolol... a wrap up can be as long as you wish for it to be.
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