Should a Prime Bermane Stiverne from the first fight with Wilder be given some credit now? He wasn't knocked down and out cold like Fury, and was able to handle Wilder's power with ease. The second fight Stiverne was unmotivated and out of shape.
Yet he was KOed by 11-15 Demetrice King, held to a draw by 17-17 Charles Davis, and took a clear dive vs Wilder 2. I'm going to say no. Stiverne was very one dimensional. If he couldn't be on the backfoot and counterpunch, he couldn't do much else.
Wilder never faced a prime Stiverne, Stiverne came into camp for that fight horribly overweight and almost killed himself to get down to a decent weight and gave himself rhabdo in doing so. As for Stiverne going the distance I believe Wilder fractured his right hand early in the fight, that's the only reason why he lasted the distance.
He receives ridicule today by the same people who picked him to beat Wilder; no coincidence there. He showed a lot of heart and walked through fire to land some nice counter left hooks. None were quite good enough to really put Wilder in trouble. Stiverne was a B listed, but that doesn’t mean he was a bad fighter. He belongs on the same tier as Maskaev, Rahman, Briggs, Brewster., etc.
Stiverne dropped a ton of weight and had kidney issues because of it. Wilder however should of been credited with a kd in that bout and wasn’t. Stiverne was bad in that fight but considering he was right in front of Wilder the entire fight and easy to hit he deserves credit for making it to the judges cards
His condition was due to physical exertion during the fight. You don’t get licensed if you’re pudding blood.
Stiverne claims it was the weight loss leading up to the bout here he is in his own words “Unfortunately I was not able to perform like I wanted to due to severe dehydration and muscle damage. I did not know how serious it was until they told me. I could of died from it. I am just happy and thank God to be healthy now.”
It’s just a bull**** excuse. He did develop that condition, but it likely occurred late in the fight. It’s called rhabdomya...something or other. Marathon runners get it from extreme exertion.
He says it happened before the fight. Who knows. I’m just relaying what he said. He really didn’t look like he was exerting himself that much during the fight. Wasn’t a very high paced bout.
