(Photo credit: Carlos Baeza) By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like unbeaten WBC mandatory challenger Deontay Wilder (31-0, 31 KO’s) may have to wait a while before he gets a crack at newly crowned WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KO’s), because he has an optional title defense coming according to his promoter Don King. Steve Kim is reporting that King has “made it clear that Bermane Stiverne has an optional defense of the WBC title upcoming.”
If this turns out to be the case, then Deontay will likely have to wait until 2015 before he eventually gets a shot at Stiverne’s WBC title. Additionally, IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko wants to fight Stiverne in a unification fight, and that further will push Deontay’s title shot back as well. The WBC will likely give Wladimir the green light to take that fight if Stiverne and King are interested in that fight. It makes sense for them to take the Wladimir fight if they can get it, because Stiverne will likely only get that one optional title defense in before losing the title to Deontay by knockout in 2015.
Earlier tonight, Stiverne defeated Chris Arreola (36-4, 31 KO’s) by an impressive 6th round knockout to win the vacant WBC heavyweight title at the USC Galen Center, in Los Angeles, California, USA. Just as I predicted, Stiverne wiped the deck with Arreola in knocking him down twice, and halting him on his feet. The rematch made absolutely zero sense given how easily Stiverne whipped Arreola last year in April, but the WBC went ahead and ordered the rematch for the vacant WBC title even though the fight had just taken place.
As it turns out, the WBC didn’t do Arreola any favors by ordering him to take that fight. Arreola should have said ‘No thanks,’ and moved on because Stiverne already showed last year that he was a really bad match-up for him. I doubt Arreola thought that one through. I mean, there’s a lot of guys that Arreola can beat in the top 15 in the heavyweight division, but Stiverne isn’t one of them. Arreola should have gotten a clue after his first thrashing and went in the opposite direction rather than signing for another beat down.
The talented 6’7″ Deontay will need to look for another fight or two while he waits for his eventual title shot. I don’t expect Deontay to get a shot at the WBC title until late 2015 or in early 2016. If Wladimir wins the WBC title, he’ll be busy defending his other titles, and he likely won’t get around to defending the WBC belt until 2016. It would be good to see Deontay take on someone like Bryant Jennings or Mike Perez while he waits for his mandatory title shot.
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