Exciting fight. Wilder threw a good jab. Has good reflexes , composure and very quick hands. Stiverne was terribly flat footed and had woeful upper body movement. But he did a good job of not allowing Wilder to come forward. If he did , those right hands would of been more powerful and likely turned his lights out. For a guy who supposedly has a glass chin ,Wilder never clinched once in the fight. Apart from the last 20 seconds when Wilder was on Bermane's chest, my clinch count was ZERO.. Lets say Wlad was in there. The clinch count would of went through the roof. If Wlad is some top 10 of all time , why can't he employ basic boxing tactics that even a guy like Wilder has? Can some body explain why? Wilder has control of distance. Not Wlad. From 1-12 he controlled that fight from the outside without a single clinch. This fight proved even more why Wlad is a disgrace of a champ. Having said that, the division is heating up now. Fury Wilder is mouth watering. And there is no more under sized top rankers left for Wlad to cheat and foul.
Stiverne was made look as bad as Leapai because Wilder has evasive skills and a wider range of movement than Wlad. He snapped the jab out while on the back foot which Wlad can't do either. Wilder was relaxed , fluid and was able to pivot out of range every time. He didn't need to hoist himself onto Stiverne's back every time he got close. He also showed he could work inside, turning Stiverne off the ropes and handing him uppercuts.
Fun fight. It's always fun too when we here on Classic get to talk about CURRENT fights instead of hypotheticals all the time...(Cheers to the mods)Wilder demonstrated he had more than previously thought...Stiverne demonstrated he couldn't or wouldn't cut off the ring...Like Bummy said, cheers to the posters who made the call!
I saw the red flags as well but I was still ready to place a bet on Wilder, I did not think it would go the full route but my hat is off to Stiverne for taking a punch but my doubts about his ability were on point. Once Teddy Atlas picked him quick I thought I was wrong about Wilder and then listening to all the posters on ESB I backed off my opinion, not usually like me at all but we 2nd guess our thoughts. This just confirmed my beliefs that you should not listen to the so-called experts about fights when you believe something everyone has an opinion and even the majority can be dominantly wrong.
I agree to a point Bummy...Generally speaking the level of competition is a true indicator of things.But...there are exceptions sometimes.
Pretty disappointed in this one. Both looked pedestrian, tho Wilder at least is showing progress. Stiverne looked absolutely horrible, couldn't cut off the ring against a guy with not great footwork, didn't build any pace whatsoever, didn't use angles that were clearly there to be exploited and his age/conditioning showed in the latter rounds. Wilder showed a nice jump in ability, tho. He's not exactly Baryshnikov but he used his feet well enough against a plodder. More impressed with his composure and ability to stick to a game plan. Still punches far too wide and appeared to get a bit gassed himself toward the end. But good for him. He definitely deserved the win.
I thought both guys showed something. Deontay showed that he could box decently, take a punch, and go 12 rounds--those were big question marks. I think everyone is a little hard on Stiverne. His biggest mistake was not establishing a body attack earlier. But he did show good power, determination, and ridiculous durability. He came back from some bombs early in the fight to give Deontay some scares. This fight was like what Tua-Lewis could have been like if Tua tried to win the whole time.
I see the expert failed to make any pick on the fight, and can only talk **** and describe things we've already seen. No *****. Bet welching *****.
Thanks. If some of these guys are to debate fantasy scenarios so passionately, at least put it on the line in real time where someone can be proved right or wrong.
At any rate where does this leave us? #1 WBC Povetkin I think will eventually be named his mandatory, and he'll have to decide to cash out against Wlad or risk losing the belt to Povetkin. But they got to milk this first, I expect at least two voluntary Wilder defenses against non-threats, which could stretch this out for at least another year or more.