Deontay Wilder: “I’m going to end his [Stiverne] life”

By Eric Thomas: Sounding very serious, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) says he’s going to end challenger Bermane “B-Ware” Stiverne’s life this Saturday night in their rematch on Showtime at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Wilder says he wants a “body” on his resume, and he also wants to save he piece of the canvas where Stiverne’s body falls after he finishes him on Saturday night.

It’s unclear what Stiverne has said to Wilder to get him so riled up like this, considering he’s mostly quiet during the press conferences the two fighters have had. Stiverne hasn’t done a lot of trash talking to get Wilder in the agitated state that he’s in right now. The way that Wilder is talking, you’d think he’s fighting Anthony Joshua on Saturday night instead of Stiverne.

“The ambulance better be ready, medical better be ready,” said Wilder to Fighthub. ”The referee better be ready. They better have that towel to be able to throw it in because every blow is going to mean something. This is death. I want a body on my record anyway! I want to put a body there! This just got even more personal.” said Wilder.

This sounds bad from Wilder. He really wants to do some damage to the 39-year-old Stiverne in this fight. The last time the two fought, Wilder pounded out a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over Stiverne on January 17, 2015. It was a fight that left Stiverne looking badly lumped up around his face, as if he’d been hit with a club 4 or 5 times. Wilder says Stiverne was concussed from the fight. Stiverne took a lot of punishment during the courage of the fight. Wilder fought most of the fight with a broken right hand. Despite breaking the hard early on, Wilder could use his hand for hard punches. In the second half of the fight, Wilder threw fewer right hands than he did in the first 6 rounds.

When Wilder would unload with a right, he would sometimes throw it in a clubbing manner. That was the biggest hint that there was a problem with Wilder’s right. The other big hint was the fact that Wilder mostly jabbed and moved in the last half of the contest. Some of the boxing commentators thought Wilder was fatigued. He might have been, but mostly he was dealing with his inability to use his right hand.

“I want the canvas where he laid at, because it’s going to be memorabilia for me,” said Wilder. ”That’s going to be one body under my record. I guess they all will run then, huh? This is no game I play. I’m very serious and everybody knows I mean every word that I say,” said Wilder.

Wilder badly hurt 2 of his opponents in the past with his brutal knockouts of Artur Szplilka and Siarhei Liakhovich. Those were bad looking knockouts. But most of the time, Deontay Wilder knocks his opponents out without them getting badly hurt in the process. Stiverne’s ability to absorb punishment could be a problem for him in this fight. He took a lot of hard shots without going down, which means he’s going to be around for a long time to eat Wilder’s right-hand bombs.

If Stiverne can’t get a knockout of Wilder early on, he’s going to be forced to take a lot of his heavy punches in the fight, and that could leave him worn out by the end of the fight. Hopefully if the beating is too bad the referee or Stiverne’s corner will step in to halt the fight so that he doesn’t get seriously hurt in the fight. That wouldn’t be good for the boxing fans to have to see Stiverne stretchered out of the ring like Szpilka was after his 8th round knockout loss to Wilder on January 16 last year at the Barclays Center. At the time of the stoppage, Szpilka wasn’t doing that badly in the fight. The judges had Wilder up by the scores 77-75, 78-74 and 78-74. It was hardly what you would call a blowout. Szpilka was using his boxing skills to give Wilder some problems in the fight.

“I beat him to an inch of his life the first time, this time I’m going to end his life,” said Wilder with a gleam in his eyes.

I don’t know if Wilder is serious or not with the things he’s saying. There’s a professional wrestling quality with the way that Wilder was talking. He looked like he was in a theater talking in front of members of a crowd coming to see a play rather than listening to a boxer give his prediction on a fight. Perhaps Wilder wants to bring in bigger ratings for his fight on Showtime. It’s hard to say for sure. The boxing fans have totally disinterested in Stiverne as Wilder’s opponent. Most of the talk this week has been focused on Wilder vs. Anthony Joshua and Wilder vs. Dillian Whyte.

It’s no disrespect to Stiverne, but the boxing fans already saw Wilder beat him easily in 2015. Stiverne is old news. The fans want to see Wilder take on Joshua or Whyte next, because those are guys that could give him an interesting fight. Stiverne has let his career die off by not staying active in the last 2 years since his close 10 round decision win over Derric Rossy on November 14, 2015. Stiverne looked horrible in that fight in getting dropped in round 1, and taking a lot of shots from a journeyman level opponent. If Stiverne can’t fight any better than he did against Rossy, then he’s going to take a beating from Wilder and wind up getting knocked out quickly on Saturday.

“Hopefully he don’t get dehydrated this time,” said Wilder about Stiverne.” I gave him Pedialyte. This right here turned up into a whole another level. Somebody will die in that ring come November the 4th. I promise,” said Wilder.

Well, you can at least give Wilder credit for staying on message about him looking to end Stiverne’s life inside the ring on Saturday. He seems to be focused on that message. I don’t know if it’s going to frighten Stiverne though. He seems to be experienced in boxing, and he’s not going to be scared by Wilder’s tough talk. Stiverne is plenty motivated for this fight, and he wants to do avenge his loss from 2015. He claims that he was dehydrated for that fight, and he feels he can fight at a much higher level this time compared to the previous fight. We’re going to get a chance to see if he’s for real or if this is just more talk from him. What the fan don’t need is excuses if things don’t work out for Stiverne for the second fight.

“There’s nothing he can bring. He brought everything he could bring the first time,” said Wilder. ”He brought all his tricks, all his power. There’s nothing he’s going to be able to do this time. The only thing he’s going to be able to do is pick a spot on the ground to lay at! And be there! And remember that!” said Wilder.

Stiverne is likely going to bring a whole lot more pressure for this fight compared to the previous one. In the first fight, Stiverne didn’t use his powerful jab nearly enough when coming forward to attack Wilder. For Saturday’s rematch, Stiverne will want to lead with his jab and then follow that up with right hands and left hooks once he gets in punching range of the 6’7” Wilder. Stiverne can’t just plod in like last time looking to hit Wilder with right hands and left hooks. That’s not going to work for him.