Last night in Las Vegas, Deontay Wilder became the first American in eight years to own a piece of the World Heavyweight Title when he defeated Bermane Stiverne by unanimous decision over 12 rounds for the WBC version of the crown. Wilder had entered the fight favored to win the belt, and he kept his pre-fight promise to Stiverne by sending the Haitian-Canadian home without the belt.
Wilder is now (33-0) with 32 KO’s, but he dominated the action with his jabbing, not allowing Stiverne to get inside where he would be dangerous. Nearing the end of the second round, Wilder appeared to hurt Stiverne, and the flurry at the end of the round showed a lot of the whole in Wilder’s game. He opened up with a flurry of wide, winging punches. and his positioning and footwork were so poor that he wound up on his back in the Jiu Jitsu “guard” as Stiverne fell forward onto him. The round ended, and Stiverne was clearly shaken.
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After that, Wilder settled down to what worked for him, and that was movement and distance and his stinging jab. At times the crowd reacted with boos, as the action got stale, but Wilder was able to stay with the plan over the course of twelve rounds, which was something Wilder critics were saying he could not do. He showed a full gas tank as well, as he did not tire out as the fight went long.
Wilder is reported to have earned $1 million dollars for the fight last night, and he will earn a lot more if he plays his cards right. In the post fight press conference he spoke of meeting Wladimir Klitschko and Tyson Fury. Hopefully Wilder does not rush into a fight with Klitschko, who is said to covet the WBC belt Wilder now owns, it would be a shame if Wilder drops the title in his first defense reaching for a pay day.
The face off between the two men from earlier in the week was very intense. Despite Don King and Bernard Hopkins running interference, Stiverne and Wilder did not take their eyes off each other for a full three minutes:
