If, as expected, Deontay Wilder wins his rematch with Bermane Stiverne in New York this weekend, the WBC champion wants Dillian Whyte next year, but only as part of a package that would also include a unification bout with Anthony Joshua.
Wilder has won all 38 of his professional fights with all but one coming inside the distance. He’s impossible to back in the match betting against Stiverne at a general 1/20 but the Haiti-born Canadian is the one minor blemish on his record. The veteran took The Bronze Bomber all the way at the MGM Grand in 2015 before losing the WBC belt that he’d won a year earlier against Chris Arreola.
Stiverne has only been stopped once in his career but this is his last shot at stepping back into the limelight and he doesn’t look up to it. After Joshua’s dismantling of Carlos Takam, despite a broken nose, Wilder is keen to grab back the initiative and the luckless Stiverne could be the one that bears the brunt.
AJ, however, has already said that he wants to unify the belts so making a match between the two champions should not be too difficult but Whyte is the fly in the ointment. He’d be the mandatory challenger should Wilder beat Stiverne a second time and it shouldn’t be forgotten that the Jamaican gave Joshua a torrid time at the O2 in 2015 before being floored in the seventh round. Tyson Fury is also making positive sounds about a comeback so 2018 could be very interesting in the heavyweight division, though the still-unbeaten Fury will have to jump through hoops before the British Boxing Board Of Control before getting back his license.
To keep himself at the head of Joshua’s wish list, Wilder has to be more impressive against Stiverne than the WBA, IBF and IBO champion was against Takam. AJ took 10 rounds to finally end the resistance of the France-based Cameroonian in Cardiff and you would imagine Wilder is thinking of terms of a quicker fight. But, since stepping up to this level in 2011, only two of Stiverne’s seven fights have ended in under six rounds. Four of the seven have, in fact, gone the distance, including his first match with Wilder. However, he’s only fought once in the last two years with a planned eliminator with Alexander Povetkin cancelled last year after both men tested positive for banned substances.
That long absence is likely to take its toll on 39-year-old Stiverne and backing Under 9.5 Total Rounds with Marathonbet at 3/8 is a much more enticing proposition than the match betting.
Marathonbet are also offering 3/11 that Wilder wins by KO, TKO or Disqualification and it is impossible to see any other outcome at the Barclays Center this weekend, despite the result of the first meeting between the pair.
