I didn't see the fight saturday night, but kept track of the RBR on forums. I kept hearing how Wilder was gassed as soon as the 5th or 6th round. He made it 12 rounds being "gassed". How bad was it, was he Frank Bruno gassed? Was he falling into the ropes when no one was touching him?
No he was not Frank Bruno gassed. His punch output dropped considerably as the rounds went on but he was never in danger of falling into the ropes etc. Wilder proved he could go 12 rounds at a decent pace.
He was tired but also weary of the 12 round distance. some fighters need to go the distance to really know they can do it. Wilder was holding back a lot as he knew Stiverne was tough. Now he has been 12 you will see him more relaxed.
Ok thanks. It is already on youtube and i just watched it. Deontay totally outboxed and outclassed his opponent. He didn't seem any more gassed than Stiverne. Deontay is the real deal, if the glass of the past doesn't surface he'll do great things.
He got tired after he threw a series of hilarious windmills somewhere in the middle rounds. After that he went back to running away and jabbing.
Did seem that he was fatiguing quite a bit but seemed to get a second wind and he handled the fatigue well.
He was jabbing and running from the very beginning. He went in for the kill on a hurt opponent and when it was apparent that the KO wasn't going to happen he went back to his gameplan that was winning up to that point, nothing wrong with that. Wilder was fighting a very disciplined fight. When he mixed it up, he gets himself in a very awkward and vulnerable position. This may be his undoing in future match-ups.
Wilder seems like he boxed in spurts from roudn 6 on. He threw a couple punches then took long breaks and did nothing. Against Wlad this would be dead. Wlad has a crazy workrate that would destroy Wilder in the later rounds.
It didn't appear to me that he was anymore fatigued than Stiverne and he was throwing twice the punches as Stiverne. Wilder seems to have stamina similar to Mike Tyson. Mike's level of KO's dropped drastically when going past the 7th round, only one KO after that point in his career. I see the same for Wilder after someone lasting midrounds they will not be KO'd by Deontay.
All in all I gotta say Wilder paced himself well. He knew that if he overpaced himself he would be in trouble later so he threw a couple bombs, but then took a step back to not overextend himself. Stiverne was unable to take advantage of Wilders low workrate in the later rounds.
Wlad does handle the distance quite well, no reason for Wlad to hurry if facing Wilder. Wlad has KO'd guys early and late, he's been the 12 round distance 6 times. Wlad need to just keep Deontay busy and take the brown bomber into the deep water and turn on the afterburners in the 8-12 rounds. Just keep in mind that Wlad has some glass in his past also.
He's clearly a frontrunner. He can still box pretty well after 6 rounds, and he looked ok and not totally gassed, but it looked like a lot of his power was gone and his workrate dropped quite a bit.
