1. Prepare for 12 Rounds, Fight for Much Less
Photo courtesy of Eye of the Tiger Management
32 wins and 0 losses. Oh, and 32 knockouts. That’s not a majority knockout ratio with some UD wins sprinkled in there. That is a 100 percent statistic that if you step in the ropes with Deontay Wilder, you will get knocked out, and a 0 percent chance that the heavyweight destroyer is going to lose.
And that is who Bermane Stiverne is defending his WBC Heavyweight title against.
Now, the proper thing to tell a fighter who is matched up against a knockout artist is that the way to beat them is to A.) Not get hit and; B.) Push the fight to the later rounds, since knockout boxers are notorious for having low doses of stamina.
This isn’t going to work in this matchup, however. Even though we’ve seen Stiverne make it to the last round on a few occasions, we’ve also seen him win in some form of knockout, 21 different times.
With that being said, there’s no use in working the prance-around-the-ring-for nine-rounds tactic, especially since we’re looking at heavyweights here.
Stiverne should be mentally prepared to drag this fight out as long as he needs to. He’s done it before in other cases, and there’s a (slight) chance he could do it with Wilder. Physically though, those punches need to be coming out with the intention of putting a quick end to the fight. Sure, this thing can end with all 12 rounds down, but we’re all looking for a knockout.
