By Scott Gilfoid: Dan Rafael is reporting that Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya is saying that there still isn’t a deal between WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne and his mandatory challenger Deontay Wilder, but De La Hoya is still hopeful that he’ll be able to put a deal together before the scheduled Wilder-Stiverne purse bid this Wednesday, October 1st.
“In speaking to Oscar De La Hoya, he reiterated no deal yet for Stiverne-Wilder but hopes to close 1 w/Don King before Wednesday’s purse bid. #boxing.”
The fight will happen even if they’re unable to come to an agreement before the purse bid on Wednesday, so that’s at least one positive. It’s unclear what the sticking point has been for the negotiations to have dragged on this long. I mean, they should have been able to make a deal long before this. The fact that it’s dragged out this long is troubling to say the least.
For Stiverne and Wilder this could be the last barrier to one of them getting a big money fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, unless the World Boxing Council forces the winner of the Stiverne-Wilder fight to face Bryant Jennings next. I’m not sure what Stiverne’s thoughts are to fighting the 6’6” Wladimir, but Deontay is quite eager to making that fight happen.
Deontay will need to get the hard hitting Stiverne out of there is quickly as possible when they meet up in December, because Stiverne hits too hard for him to leave around for any length of time.
Luckily for Deontay he’s got one-punch power in either hand. He should be able to score a fairly quick KO once he starts nailing Stiverne with his right hand bombs and left hooks. Chris Arreola had Stiverne in trouble in their fight last May, and Arreola is little more than a hard slapper at best.
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