Definitely not Wilders fault. He fought like a champion. There should be more heat put on the WBC, for not only this complete mismatch, but also the Dillian Whyte fiasco where Whyte is supposed to the mandatory. However, it was said the winner of the lower ranked Molina/Breazeale fight would replace the newly ranked number 1 contender Whyte who just got to that placing and hasn't even had a mandatory challenge. This defeats the purpose of having a number 1 contender. The WBC might as well have all their top 10 boxers in that division, as number 1 contenders and scratch the top 10 rankings all together for their organisation. At the moment, it seems the WBC just picks who they'd like to see fight Wilder from the top 10, not the opponents the people want to see. Putting Stiverne in there was just poor match-making and a poor display of a boxing "fight". If the champ Wilder felt disrespected by the WBC and Stiverne for giving him such a easy fight, I wouldnt blame him. Stiverne should retire because of that rematch.
Eh, you never know. On paper Wonjongkam vs. Naito II looked ridiculous. But hey, it's one of the best multi-fight rivalries in recent years so good thing they went along with II and even III for that matter. Ali/Liston II is a good shout out. But it is also one of the most obviously fixed bouts in history. Wilder/Stiverne II was terrible but not all that much worse than many other cases. Lots of top fighters in Asia and South America end up facing the same overmatched and overwhelmed opponent multiple times.
I hate Wilder too but lets be real here... The fact that Stiverne is the fighter whom Wilder won the belt from alone makes it much better and defensible on principle than dozens, and hundreds, of other examples.
There was a well known rumor that Don King and Haymon made a deal before the fight for Stiverne to take a dive early so as to make Wilder look good. No wonder Stiverne did not lose weight or train for the fight, hell, he didn't even throw a punch! How did Stiverne every get ranked in the first place? I posted it before the fight ever happened! Breazeale can't fight at all and is owned by Haymon so Wilder will fight him next, not Whyte on Andy Ruiz who are ranked above him. Al Bernstein made that point on Showtime. That crap was WWE and I can't believe so many fell for the dive!
See I would believe that if he went down and stayed and after the first or even second knock down... but when he was up against the ropes for the final knock down he had his guard up and wilder to be fair hit him with two wicked and accurate punches which would of ended most of the division's night. If the fix was in surely he wouldnt of taken them.
Objectively speaking Klitschko vs. Brewster was much worse. He was rusty and in dreadful nick but at least Stiverne wasn't legally half blind. Poetically yes the fans love them a fightin' champ who avenges his losses (before anyone comes in sputtering "but that's different! Brewster defeated Wlad and Stiverne didn't beat Wilder so in this one there was unfinished business to settle!) but in this case it would have served Wlad just as well to skip avenging that one rather than waste a defense on an uncomfortable farce of a fight like that.
Reminds me of Louis/Schmeling, similar way of winning, multiple knockdowns, KO1 Except Wilder won the first one.