(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Heavyweight Deontay Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs) thinks that WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) has gained confidence from the support from the boxing fans who are pulling for to beat the tall 6’7” American this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Deontay doesn’t care what the fans are saying, because he feels he’s going to expose the 6’2” Haitian heavyweight as a mediocre heavyweight when he blasts him out in front of the MGM Grand crowd.
“I know everyone has been speaking for you, Bermane, but they can’t fight for you. They can only make it worse for you,” Wilder said at the final press conference on Thursday. “They have made it worse for you. You don’t understand what type of man you’re about to get in the ring with.”
This is a pick em fight that can go either way. Many boxing fans, however, feel that the 36-year-old Stiverne has too much experience and too good of a chin for the younger 29-year-old Deontay Wilder to handle in this fight. In truth, Deontay has as much if not experience than Stiverne, and he was a better amateur than Stiverne as well in picking up a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics.
The only quality opponent that Stiverne has fought during his career is Chris Arreola, a fighter who is nothing special. This is why this fight is really more of a tossup than one where you can conclusively pick a guy and say with a high degree of certainty that they’ll be winning.
Wilder definitely has the power, speed, body length and youth to get Stiverne out of there quickly. Stiverne takes a good shot, but Deontay’s power will level anybody if he can connect with his shots. Physically, Stiverne is no different from any other guy that Deontay has knocked out in the past. In other words, if Deontay is able to hit Stiverne with the kind of clean shots he’s hit his first 32 opponents with, Stiverne will go just like them. He’s not a super human when it comes to taking punishment. We kind of saw that when journeyman Demetrius King knocked Stiverne out in the 4th round in 2007 after hurting him with a right hand to the head.
“If you only knew the whopping I’m going to put on this boy, you all want the American champ, but this is for me. I am not scared to walk with my head held high because I am ready for any test,” Wilder said.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Deontay gets Stiverne out of there quickly on Saturday night. Boxing fans will wonder why they even hyped Stiverne in the first place instead of recognizing that he was the same fighter who was on the verge of losing to 40-year-old Ray Austin in their fight in 2011. Stiverne is obviously not as good as he showed in his fights against Arreola, and Deontay could be the one to bring him back down to earth again.
Deontay recognizes that he probably won’t get credit for knocking Stiverne out and exposing him. “People will say Stiverne was a bum after I beat him.” Deontay is probably right about that.
