Its uncanny how some fighters’ style fit their personality almost as perfect as a glove. Adrien Broner is as flashy with his gold, actions and clothes off the ring as much as he is inside of it, Brandon Rios aggressive style in the ring is reflected in his expletive-filled personality outside of it. WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne speaks with a methodical rhythm in much the same way he fights just like his next opponent, Deontay Wilder, is a bombastic speaker with as explosive statements as his powerful fists.
Stiverne fighting out of Las Vegas but originally of Haiti will face the “Bronze Bomber” Deontay Wilder of Tuscoloosa, Alabama, in the first mega fight of the new year on January 17th at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be broadcast live on Showtime. The bout will mark yet another opportunity to have an American born heavyweight champion since the last one, none other than Shannon Briggs. Briggs captured the WBO title with an exciting 12th round stoppage of Siarhei Liakhovich. Briggs lost the title in his very first defense seven months later via a unanimous decision to Sultan Ibragimov.
The hard hitting Stiverne was methodical but powerful in defeating Chris Arreola back in April of 2013 via a unanimous decision after dropping him and breaking his nose in the third round. Despite suffering the broken nose Arreola showed heart and went after Stiverne but Bermane was meticulous in his counterpunching and controlled the action throughout the twelve rounds. With the win Stiverne captured the WBC Silver title. Just like he is very careful in picking his words before speaking to the media, Stiverne was the same in picking his punches in the second meeting with Arreola when after allowing the Mexican-American fighter to wear himself out in the first third of the fight, Stiverne stopped him in the sixth round in May of this year. This time Stiverne captured the vacant heavyweight title.
Just as eye catching as his knockout punches have been, a perfect record of 32 wins, all by stoppage, versus no defeats, Deontay Wilder, the last American to win a gold medal in boxing at the Olympics, can open some eyes with his statements. Wilder, who hasn’t really defeated any real names in the division except for a run-down former world champion in Sergey Liakhovich, seems not only confident that he is destined to be the next heavyweight champion but is destined for it. He speaks that him winning the title on the seventeenth is only a first step towards the bigger goal of defeating Wladimir Klitschko and becoming the first American unified world heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson.
First he must get past his polar opposite, Bermane Stiverne. On a teleconference earlier this week to officially announce the fight Wilder was his usual self stating that at the end of that night he would have thirty-three wins with as many knockouts along with the green and gold belt. Stiverne simply answered that he would do his talking in the ring.
You wouldn’t expect any else from the guy.
