By Eric Thomas: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) says he plans on defending his World Boxing Council title against his mandatory challenger #2 WBC, Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s) this year. Stiverne, 34, defeated #1 WBC, Chris Arreola by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night by the scores of 117-110, 117-110 and 118-109.
Stiverne gave Arreola a beating, bloodying his nose and knocking him down in the 3rd round.
Vitali said this about the Stiverne fight as quoted by Fightnews.com: “There is an official challenger, Bermane Stiverne. The fight will take place. Now it’s necessary to determine the date.”
It was thought by some that Vitali might be retiring, but perhaps Stiverne’s win over Arreola may have given the 6’7” Vitali second thoughts. Vitali had already beaten Arreola four years ago by a 10th round TKO win, so there wouldn’t have been much interest in a second fight between them. But a fight between Vitali and Stiverne would seem like a much more interesting fight for the Ukrainian.
The 6’2” Stiverne will have a tough time landing his head shots against Vitali and he’s going to have to figure out another way to win this fight because he’s built a lot like Samuel Peter and Dereck Chisora.
Vitali easily beat Peter by an 8th round stoppage five years ago, but Vitali also struggled to beat Chisora last year in February after injuring his left shoulder early in the fight. Stiverne has better boxing ability and power than Chisora, but he’s going to have a lot of problems against Vitali as long as Vitali doesn’t suffer another injury of some sorts.
Vitali could hang onto his title for as long as he wishes because there isn’t anyone ranked in the top 15 by the WBC that will give him any problems. Tyson Fury is angling to get a fight against Vitali’s brother IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, and the other contenders aren’t really worrisome for him.
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