On Saturday, January 17, 2015, Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBC strap against undefeated knockout artist Deontay Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Nevada.
The scheduled 12-round Heavyweight fight will be the main event of a card jointly promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and Don King Productions.
WBC Super Bantamweight Champion Leo Santa Cruz is also scheduled to fight against an opponent to be determined in the in the co-main event of the Showtime-televised card.
Stiverne, 36, who was born in Haiti, is coming off a knockout victory over Chris Arreola which earned him the WBC Heavyweight title recently vacated by Vitali Klitschko.
Wilder, 29, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama will seek to erase doubts about his skill as he has not been fighting against a high level of competition.
“I’m just ready to get in that ring to prove to the world—we’ve still got a lot of naysayers and a lot nonbelievers—and I’m ready to make all the unbelievers believers. Hopefully Bermane can bring [out] that side of me,” said Wilder in an interview with Showtime’s Brian Kenny.
Wilder has never been past the fourth round and it is likely that we see him go past the fourth against Stiverne, who demonstrated good defense as he calmly blocked most of Arreola’s punches before stopping him with powerful right hands.
We will also see how Stiverne’s chin holds at this level, as his opponents rarely can make it past his height and reach advantages to land a powerful shot.
Will Stiverne score another victory en route to a showdown with Wladimir Klitschko? Or will Wilder finally convince the “unbelievers” against the toughest opponent of his career?
