Stiverne not bothered by Deontay Wilder

By Boxing News - 07/15/2014 - Comments

stiverne77By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) says he’s not bothered by the trash talking from his mandatory challenger unbeaten KO artist Deontay Wilder (31-0, 31 KOs), who Stiverne will be facing later this year in November or December. Deontay, 6’7”, has been reminding Stiverne every once in a while what awaits him when the two of them share the ring later this year.

Deontay shoots an occasional tweet Stiverne’s way just to try and get in his head, and it seems to have done it’s work based on some of the comments that Stiverne makes here.

“He’s not going to get under my skin,” Stiverne said. “I think he’s funny. Maybe he should think about doing a comedy act after I beat him? Friends have sent me stuff he’s said and done. It’s funny. He’s like a little kid who needs attention, so he keeps opening his mouth. His trash talking doesn’t bother me at all. I saw some people who brought up what he’s said. What am I supposed to do, hand my title to him?”

Deontay’s problem seems to be that there was some confusion following Stiverne’s 6th round stoppage win over Chris Arreola last May in which Stiverne’s promoter Don King talked about wanting to have him take an optional title defense first. Deontay obviously saw the potential of him not getting his title shot anytime soon, and from that point he seemed to take some shots at Stiverne. Deontay was clearly concerned that he might end up getting passed over for another opponent.

You can’t blame Deontay for being upset, because he worked hard to get his title shot in beating Malik Scott, Sergey Liakhovich and Audley Harrison, among many others.
“I guess he wants to entertain his fans. If he thinks his tricks are going to bother me, he’s going to be in big trouble,” Stiverne said. “Wilder’s not a threat but I’m taking him serious. I take all my opponents seriously but I’m going to teach that little kid a lesson. It’s a shame his promoter and manager are putting him in such a big fight like this so early in his career.”

Stiverne, 6’2”, needs to take Deontay very, very seriously, because this guy isn’t a short fighter with average power and slow speed like Arreola. Deontay is huge with a 5 inch height and big reach advantage over Stiverne. Getting hit hard by Deontay might be too much for the 35-year-old Stiverne to take, and it’s going to be difficult for him to make it past the 4th round.

All the things that Stiverne likes to do in the ring, he’s probably not going to be able to do against a guy the size of Deontay, because of his height and reach. Stiverne’s jabs will likely come up short, as will his left hooks. The only time Stiverne will be able to try and land is after Deontay has already thrown and landed one of his own shots. The problem with Stiverne countering Deontay is that by the time he’s hit, it may be too late to try and counter because he’ll be too hurt from the power on Deontay’s shots.



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