(Photo credit: Goosen Tutor) By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s) isn’t looking past his opponent #2 WBC Chris Arreola (36-3, 31 KO’s) in their second and hopefully their last fight together this Saturday night at the Galen Center, in Los Angeles, California, USA. Stiverne whipped Arreola by a 12 round decision last year in April, but the WBC decided it would be a good idea for them to fight again for the vacant WBC heavyweight title after champion Vitali Klitschko vacated the strap this year.
The winner of the Arreola-Stiverne fight has to fight the WBC mandatory challenger Deontay Wilder (31-0, 31 KO’s) unless they can get the WBC to give them permission to face IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in a unification bout, which is a distinct possibility given Wladimir’s interest in capturing that strap.
“It’s [a fight against Deontay Wilder] not on my mind,” Stiverne said via USA Today. “It’s not something I’m thinking about right now. As far as I’m concerned, I’m beating the toughest guy [Arreola] in the division, who I beat once.”
Arreola is tough in terms of his ability to take punishment, but it’s hard to see him as being tough as far as being the second best heavyweight in the division. I mean, Arreola has already beaten badly exposed by Vitali Klitschko, Tomasz Adamek, and of course, Stiverne. It’s good that Stiverne wants to build Arreola up because that makes his likely win over him this Saturday night look a lot more significant, but we need to put things in perspective here. The 6’7″ Deontay has the power and size to give a short fighter like the 6’2″ Stiverne fits if/when that fight happens in the future.
Deontay will likely be at Saturday’s Arreola-Stiverne 2 fight in order to scout out the winner, and also be available for interviews and camera shots into the crowd. Deontay feels he matches up very well against either of these guys, and he can’t wait to get one of them in the ring in order to capture the WBC heavyweight title. If Deontay can grab the WBC title, a big money unification fight against Wladimir would be just over the horizon for him. There’s also a fight between Deontay and the winner of the Mike Perez vs. Bryant Jennings fight. We also could see Deontay eventually defending against Tyson Fury or Dereck Chisora in the future. There are a lot of big fights that could happen with Deontay if he picks up the WBC title.
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