(Photo credit: Tiffany Lam) By Jim Dower: #1 WBC Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KO’s) destroyed #2 WBC Chris Arreola (36-4, 31 KO’s) in the 6th round on Saturday night to capture the vacant WBC heavyweight title at the USC Galen Center, in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Stiverne knocked Arreola down twice in the 6th round. The referee Jack Reiss halted the fight with Arreola badly hurt on his feet at 2:00 of the round. The fight was close going into the 6th round, as both guys had fought pretty much on even terms. But in the 6th round, Stiverne caught Arreola with a big right hand to the side of the head that staggered and dropped Arreola on the canvas. After he got to his feet, Arreola was hit with a flurry of heavy head shots that sent sliding down the ropes.
To Arreola’s credit, he got back up but he was far too hurt to make it out of the round. Arreola might have been able to survive had he been smart and held, but instead he retreated to the ropes and he was taken out with a flurry of head shots.
Arreola had said that he wasn’t going to stand directly in front of Stiverne, and that he was going to move his head a lot to avoid getting hit by Stiverne. Unfortunately for Arreola, he fought the exact same fight as he did last year in losing to Stiverne by a 12 round decision. Arreola failed to use his reach, and he constantly was in Stiverne’s punching distance.
In 1st round, Arreola jumped on Stiverne early and was unloading on him with big power shots. It looked like it was going to be an Arreola round until Stiverne caught Arreola with a right-left combination that staggered him badly. Arreola was able to make it out of the round, but it was a sign of what was to come later in the fight.
Arreola came back strong in rounds 2 and 3 in getting the better of Stiverne with his powerful combinations. Stiverne made it easy for Arreola in those two rounds by him fighting off the ropes. But in rounds 4 and 5, Stiverne used his jab more and moved along the ropes to keep from being a stationary target. At the same time, Arreola looked like he was tiring out slightly, and not throwing as many punches as he had in the first three rounds of the fight. Arreola looked visibly frustrated in the 5th round from the little bit of movement that Stiverne used.
“I’m not out. I got to make a couple of changes,” Arreola said. “No more cerveza. I got to live a clean life.”
With this win, Stiverne will either be facing the WBC mandatory challenger Deontay Wilder (31-0, 31 KO’s) or IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in a unification fight. ESPN’s Dan Rafael said that Wladimir told him today that he wants to fight Stiverne in a unification bout next. It remains to be seen if Wladimir will attempt to do that and if the World Boxing Council will give Stiverne permission to bypass the Deontay Wilder fight in order to face Wladimir.
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