By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) has reportedly suffered a hand injury while training for a November title defense against WBC #1 mandatory challenger Deontay Wilder (31-0, 31 KOs).
Stiverne, 35, still believes that he’ll be able to make the fight in November, but it’s not known at this point if it’s going to happen or not. In the meantime, Deontay, who feels that Stiverne is simply out of shape and in need more time to turn off the blubber, is thinking about taking a tune-up fight.
It would be interesting to see who Deontay faces in a tune-up. I think the winner of the Dereck Chisora vs. Tyson Fury bout would make for a good option for Deontay, because Fury already said he wants to fight Deontay next if he gets past Chisora in their rematch this month. The 6’9″ Fury would make for an intriguing fight against the 6’7″ Deontay. It would exciting for as long it lasts, which I suspect would be about 1-2 rounds at best before the curtains are pulled on Fury.
“We have not heard from Wilder as to whether or not he will take a tune-up fight or not,” said WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman to RingTV.com. “I believe that the fight will take place in November or December at the latest.”
With hand injuries these things can linger on and on. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stiverne doesn’t fight again in 2014. The World Boxing Council is going to need to make a decision at some point in how much time they allow Stiverne to sit on his WBC title healing before they stick him with the old ‘Champion in recess” title that they give to guys that are injured and unable to defend their titles in a timely fashion.
We saw the WBC do this with Andre Ward in the recent past, and I just wonder if they’ll do that with Stiverne. WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko sat on his title for a year without defending it before eventually vacating the strap.
If the WBC makes Stiverne the ‘Champion in recess,” then Deontay can face the winner of the July 26th fight between Mike Perez and Bryant Jennings for the vacant WBC heavyweight title later on this year, unless the winner of that fight is still licking his wounds by late December. You can’t have Deontay sitting and waiting indefinitely for a title shot while guys are nursing wounds of one sort or another.
Deontay is convinced 100% in his mind that Stiverne wants no part of fighting him. He just thinks that the 35-year-old Stiverne is trying to prolong his time as the WBC champion for as long as possible due to the love and adoration he’s receiving as the champ.
Deontay wants to take that away from him by getting him in the ring so that he can try and knock him out and take his strap from him, but it might not be so easy to get him in the ring with him now being injured.
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