Stiverne ruined himself, won the title off a fatty and became a lazy ass champion, had to cut loads of weight for the Wilder fight which led to his Rhabdomyoysis. He then showed up in even worse shape against Rossy. Stiverne is just another US heavy who's eaten himself out of contention. Had he actually trained for Rossy and showed up 15lbs lighter he would have never been dropped and won a comfortable decision and people wouldn't be saying this was a mismatch. Stiverne's inactivity is also an issue he hasn't fought since Rossy some 8 months ago, he's been horribly managed. By the time he steps in with AJ he will likely been out of the ring for almost a year, be overweight or weight drained and dehydrated and in against the biggest puncher and fundamentally sound fighter he's ever fought.
I'm not sure if sticerne is anything more than a gatekeeper at this point. Talent wise he could make it a fight I suppose if he shows up on shape. Otherwise it might as well be a fixed fight. Stiverne can have a nice little run of losing to top fighters for paydays, knocking out cans to hype upcoming fight against top fighters, rise repeat. It would shock me if Sticerne ever wins another fight against a top opponent.
Stiverne isn't American, but I don't disagree with most of what you said. I can't believe people thought that this guy would beat Wilder .
I know he's Haitian/Canadian but he's based in Vegas and is a likely to be a US citizen now as he was in the process if becoming a naturalized citizen during the Arreola fights. Wilder for all his faults is better than many people expected and he showed a style we hadn't seen before or since, a fast agile Wilder constantly on the move. Stiverne always had a punchers chance and showed in the amateurs he could get to big men like David Price. Maybe he could of done better had he bothered to actually train for the fight instead of just rocking up and expecting to KO another hype job.
Only active HW with decent resume is Wladimir Klitschko. Povetkin - partly, Haye (mix CW and HW) too...