American heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder, nicknamed the "Bronze Bomber" for his prodigious knockout power, is expected to make a big leap in quality of competition for his next fight. After racking up 31 wins to start his career, all of which came by knockout, he is the mandatory challenger for Bermane Stiverne's WBC title.
Stiverne became the first Haitian heavyweight champion in boxing history by defeating veteran Chris Arreola for the second time, but that doesn't worry Wilder in the least.
WBC prez forcing Stiverne to fight Deontay Wilder
"I see this fight being an easy fight for me to be honest," Wilder said to the Tuscaloosa News. "(Stiverne) keeps his head down, I'm a tall fighter. He likes to stay back, of course he likes to counter but my arms are so long, you're going to have to get out of your comfort zone to fight a fighter like me. I'm predicting a first-round knockout."
Stiverne had been linked to a possible Wladimir Klitschko fight that would be to unify the titles in the heavyweight division, but WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman stepped in to force Stiverne to take on Wilder first. Should Wilder win, it would make for a heavily-hyped showdown with Klitschko.
Dereck Chisora: Bronze Bomber "knocking out nobodies."
" I think Klitschko saw opportunity to unify the division and he tried to go for it. But my thing is, that would be easy work for him. I'm like 'Hold up, you're not going to be able to unify all the belts just that easy, you know, it's not going to be that easy for you.' I'm glad the WBC stepped in, but it was already final that I was the mandatory. That's what I fought for, to be the mandatory. The rules were already set in place, I don't know why they even tried to come in and do that," Wilder said before insinuating Klitschko may be ducking him.
"He went back on his word, at one point in time he said that he would fight in America if there was an exciting heavyweight in America worth fighting, and now he saying he wants to fight Stiverne and he would fight him in America. Stiverne is not an exciting heavyweight. But (Klitschko) sees the opportunity of getting that WBC belt and he'd do anything to unify. But not so fast, dog, you're going to have to go through me."
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