A couple days ago reports surfaced about there being a deal for a December fight between WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) and #1 WBC Deontay Wilder. Apparently, someone spoke too soon, because Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya says that there has been no deal reached between the 35-year-old Stiverne and the 6’7” Wilder.
If the two sides are unable to come to an agreement in their negotiations then it’ll go to purse bids on October 1st next week. That’s when the World Boxing Council has scheduled a purse bid in order to finally get the fight put together.
Contrary to wretched WBC comments @OscarDeLaHoya told me today he has NOT reached terms with King on Stiverne-Wilder. #boxing,” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter.
Either way, a fight will get put together or else Stiverne will get stripped for failing to defend his title against his mandatory. My guess is Wilder-Stiverne fight will go to a purse bid next Wednesday, and whoever has the deepest pockets will win the bid. The trouble with Wilder and Stiverne is that neither of them have a big enough following for someone to come along and plunk down a ton of money to place it in a venue where a massive amount of boxing fans will show up to see the fight.
Neither guy has the kind of popularity at this point for their fight to bring in a huge gate or huge ratings. That could change in the future if Deontay knocks Stiverne out, and then beats someone like Wladimir Klitschko. But right now it’s still too early for Deontay’s career for a lot of boxing fans to get excited about him.
This fight will be the first one for Deontay where he’s facing a decent opponent. Stiverne is hardly a great fighter, but he’s light years better than the guys that Deontay has been knocking out during his 6-year pro career. The best guys that Deontay has been in with thus far are Audley Harrison, Malik Scott and Sergey Liakovich, and none of those guys are high quality fighters.
