He’ll be remembered as a one dimensional fighter who finally got exposed after fighting a real champion material contender in the first time of his career. Especially if he loses this trilogy, not even hating.
If that version of Stiverne was horribly debilitated and the version that fought Wilder in the rematch was clearly a lot worse, how did the even older, more worn, less active and considerably more obese version perform so much better against Joyce and Bryan? Stiverne had been stopped early 8 years prior by a low-mid level journeyman, presumably while not carrying a life threatening condition, so how did the chronically dehydrated and sick version manage to absorb so many of Wilder's bombs and actually have his best round in the 12th? Stiverne didn't look noticeably slower of hand and foot or lacking energy against Wilder imo. To me it seemed that Stiverne was unable to deal with the height, reach, footspeed, jab and power of Wilder and Wilder showed he could box well to a disciplined gameplan. In 2014 Stiverne was the 3rd highest ranked HW with Ring Magazine and had come off two dominant wins against top 10 ranked Arreola (one just 6 months prior) when he fought Wilder, so 12-0/11-1 with a KD was a very solid win for Wilder.
The $100M duck. That will go down in history as a far greater embarrassment than Bowes belt dumping and possibly the biggest own-goal in the history of professional sports.
He will be remembered as the hardest puncher in the history of boxing. His head to head ability will get greatly overrated by older fans just like David Tuas, Earnie Shavers and Tommy Morrisons are.
