Bermane Stiverne-Deontay Wilder: Post-Fight Report Card

by Cliff Rold

Three things are true about Deontay Wilder:

He now has a belt at Heavyweight, he is far from the fraud some insisted he was, and he still has a long ways to go.

One thing is not true:

He is not the Heavyweight Champion of the World. 

On Saturday night in Las Vegas, Wilder won the WBC belt with a dominant decision over Bermane Stiverne.  To be the champion, one day he’ll have to defeat Wladimir Klitschko.  Nothing seen this weekend indicates Wilder is ready for that feat.

There were signs that he might get there.

Take away the belt and what Saturday really boiled down to is Wilder won his biggest step up in competition to date.  Stiverne is his first win over someone universally seen as a top ten Heavyweight.  It’s a start.

Wilder’s next 4-5 fights will tell us much more about where he might finish up.  

Let’s go to the report card.

Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Stiverne B; Wilder B/Post: B; B+

The biggest question mark for both men going into the fight was there chins.  Both beards held up.  Stiverne’s chin questions were overstated; his one stoppage loss was highly questionable.  Wilder’s were based on a struggle with Harold Sconiers in 2010, gym rumors, and an amateur stoppage.

Wilder didn’t take a ton of big shots, or find himself in prolonged exchanges.  He did eat enough flush Stiverne blows to resolve that he’s not just going to fall to pieces the first time he gets tapped.  Fans who expected Wilder to fold on contact got a reply.  He wobbled a couple times.  He did not fall.

Wilder also showed that his power is for real.  He hurt Stiverne several times, and should have been credited with a knockdown in round two.  Stiverne showed his own whiskers, and guts, surviving the spots of turbulence.

What Stiverne didn’t show is that he’s grown all that much from the Ray Austin fight.  Using his jab and steady movement, Wilder kept Stiverne’s punch output down.  The defending titlist often plods, waiting for opponents to sit down too long in front of him and countering.  Wilder limited those chances.

Perhaps the most impressive thing Wilder did this weekend was what he didn’t do.  There were times where Stiverne was on the ropes and it looked like both men would be going bombs away.  Wilder stepped away from those moments and went back to boxing.  It was deliberate.  It was smart.  Stiverne’s best hopes to turn things around were for Wilder to get reckless and walk into something.

Wilder didn’t take the bait.  For a guy who had never been past four rounds, he showed maturity and composure when he needed it.  There were a few times as the fight wore on where he showed visible fatigue as well.  He got through those by keeping to his game plan.

Stiverne didn’t have an answer.  There was a feeling here that Stiverne was being wildly overrated by those who put way more stock in beating Chris Arreola than they should have.  Arreola is a tough guy, but was he really ever more than a fringe contender or journeyman?  His results say no. 

That was all Stiverne backers could really point to as quality on his record.  Stiverne has big power, and a big chin, but he needed more than that to beat a guy born with far more natural talent and enough boxing IQ to go from novice to Olympic Medalist to professional beltholder in just a decade.

Add it all together and what we have is every reason to believe Wilder gets better from here.  He will have some mental security about what happens when he gets tagged under the lights.  He will know, rather than believe, he can go twelve and win.  That is all an important part of developing confidence.

So is continuing to fight guys who can progress his evolution.  This is the tricky part for Wilder.  He is vastly improved from his debut but he hasn’t peaked yet and it doesn’t look like we’ve seen his best.  Let’s assume he doesn’t fight Klitschko in 2015.

That’s an easy assumption and his team would be nuts to go there too soon.  He’s not ready.  One top ten foe doesn’t get you ready.  He has a chance to emerge as both a real challenger and a real attraction if the right balance is struck.  His advisor, Al Haymon, now having NBC gives him a great platform.  Let’s be honest: even after last night, almost no one outside hardcore fight circles knows who Wilder is.

That can change quickly.

Fighters like Steve Cunningham, Tony Thompson, and Eddie Chambers are out there who are capable to taking him rounds and presenting him with different challenges.  They are also winnable fights.  His personality, athleticism, and power will speak for themselves.  A bout with Tyson Fury would be a great promotion.  Contenders like Kubrat Pulev and Alexander Povetkin would be serious tests.

If that isn’t the level of foe he’s facing in his next few, the critiques of his opposition before Stiverne will get louder than ever.  He can’t go backwards.  He can’t be matched anymore like his handlers are scared he’ll lose.  They have a beltholder.

If they want a champion, Wilder’s next 4-5 fights have to be about getting him as ready as possible (and he may never be ready enough) for Klitschko. 

Some press outlets quoted Klitschko this week saying Wilder, based on past sparring sessions, ‘can’t take it at all.’  That sounds like the sowing the seeds of a showdown.

And Wilder’s response can be simple: so far, he’s handled adversity a hell of a lot better in his early professional years than Klitschko did.    

Wilder wouldn’t beat Klitschko right now.  With more real fights, more improvement, Wilder versus a by-then 40-year old Klitschko in 2016 could be the biggest promotion at Heavyweight since Klitschko-Haye.  And Wilder might have a chance to win.

That will be right around the time Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker, the two best heavyweight prospects in a decade, are ready to contend.  Heavyweight is looking up in a big way.

There will be plenty who Klitschko-Wilder it now.  They’re not going to get it.  It says here it would be worth the wait.  Enjoy the road.

As to Stiverne, his career isn’t over.  He’d make a logical foe for Klitschko on the road to unification.  Comparison shopping is one of the oldest, and easiest, ways to build a big fight.

In the 19th century, America’s John Heenan and Britain’s Tom Sayers met in the world’s first global Heavyweight superfight.  Build it right and the 21st century might just have their version in Klitschko-Wilder.  

Report Card Picks 2015: 1-0

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at