January 17, 2015, WBC Heavyweight champion, Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) will be defending his title against knockout machinist, Deontay Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs).
Of course, no one is doubting Stiverne’s skill here, as the belt is currently wrapped around his waist, but fighting Wilder is not going to be a walk in the park. We’re hoping that among many other things in his playbook, he’s included these three tactics for his upcoming bout.
Header photo by Naoki Fukada
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.
2. Wait for the Hands to Drop
Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
The fun part about these two matching up is that Deontay Wilder’s weaknesses are Bermane Stiverne’s strengths.
My personal favorite is that Wilder has a tendency to drop his hands completely after a good flurry, while Stiverne is pretty good at counter punching.
It almost seems like the American is expecting every single one of his punches to knock his opponent out, so in his mind there’s no need to bring his hands directly back up because his challenger is already tasting the mat.
But what if after a fantastic flurry the other boxer is still standing and Wilder’s hands are by his pockets?
That should be the exact moment where Stiverne lets out the glass-shattering, ground-shaking punch he’s got. Of course, the first step to this plan is to survive the initial flurry that he’s going to have to endure through.
3. Embarrass Wilder
In a recent interview with ESPN, Deontay Wilder stated:
“This is bad blood…you hear fighters all the time saying this is not personal, this is just business, but in this situation, this case, this is personal and business as well. So I definitely want to hurt him, and I can’t wait, man.”
This fight is business and personal? Wonderful. Nothing in the world can screw up a fight faster than a boxer who’s emotionally involved in it.
Getting publically embarrassed on business-stated relations is easy to shake off. It’s business after all. But receiving humiliation on a personal note is a quick way to infiltrate the mind (think back to 7th grade when Billy called you fat in front of that girl you liked).
If Bermane Stiverne can do anything to embarrass Wilder in the ring, it could turn the American from smart to animalistic. We might need to get creative here, but tactics from intense counter punching to knockdowns are a good start.
If it works well enough, we could see Wilder maybe lose control and focus of his technique and resort purely to his strength. If we’re able to witness this turn around, let’s hope that brains really does beat brawns.
