By Sean Jones: Former WBC heavyweight champion Bermane “B-Ware” has made it official that he’ll be going back to the drawing board and coming back with 100% commitment following his 1st round knockout loss to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Stiverne didn’t land any punches in the fight with Wilder. The worst part was Siverne didn’t even try to throw any shots. Stiverne looked like he wasn’t mentally there for the fight. Even before the fight, Stiverne had the same defeated look that Roman Gonzalez had before his rematch with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai last September.
Stiverne, 39, says it wasn’t his night last Saturday in his rematch with the 6’7” Wilder, but he’s making any excuses for the defeat. The previous time Stiverne lost to Wilder in January 2015, he blamed the defeat on him being dehydrated for the fight. Stiverne said he wasn’t at his best for the fight, and that was the main reason for why he lost.
The excuses didn’t play out well in the boxing world, as the fans saw Stiverne as unwilling to give credit to his opponent Wilder for having lost to him. This time, Stiverne isn’t making excuses, but he’s not been pouring praise over Wilder’s head since the loss. It would have been nice to see Stiverne taking the high road and giving Wilder some credit for his victory.
Here’s what Stiverne had to say about his defeat to Deontay in a poste on his Twitter site:
“To all my Fans, Family, friends, supporters, and my camp.
I want to think you for always rocking with me through the highs and the lows.
Although the fight didn’t turn out in our favor, please know that your dedicated support means a lot to me and I am grateful for it all.
My commitment and sacrifices to the sports has never been less than 100. It just wasn’t my night. No excuses.
Back to the drawing board.
#TeamStiverne
Bermane Stiverne.”
If Stiverne is going to go back to the drawing board, then he needs to get his weight down for his future fights. He doesn’t have the frame to be carrying around the kind of weight that he had on him for the Wilder fight.
Stiverne certainly could have made excuses for his loss last Saturday by blaming it on being too heavy for the fight. Stiverne looked soft and flabby in weighing in at 254 pounds at last Friday’s weigh-in. Stiverne didn’t look like he trained at all for the fight. He looked in bad shape, like he was carrying around and extra 20 pounds of fat.
If Stiverne is lucky, the World Boxing Council won’t drop him down too far in their top 15 rankings. He was ranked No.1 for the Wilder fight. If the WBC only drops Stiverne down to No.10, then he can certainly get back to the top of the rankings in a couple of years if he fights frequently and beats 1 or 2 contenders.
Before last Saturday, Stiverne had been out of the ring for 2 years. He can’t do that again if he wants to get another world title shot, because he’s not going to get pushed to No.1 by the WBC by inactive. The WBC gave Stiverne a No.1 ranking for some reason, but they probably won’t do that again. It looks bad, and it sets up bad mismatches like the one we saw last Saturday.