Deontay Wilder vs. Bermane Stiverne – Official weights

Boxingnews24.com

By Sean Jones: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) weighed in at a slender 220.75 pounds on Friday at his weigh-in for his rematch with former heavyweight belt holder Bermane “B-Ware” Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) this Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

(Photo credit Amanda Westcott /SHOWTIME)

For his part, the 39-year-old Stiverne weighed in a pudgy-looking 254 ¾ lbs. This is 15 pounds heavier than the 239 lbs. that Stiverne weighed in his previous fight against Wilder on January 17, 2015. Stiverne blamed his loss to Wilder at him being too light and dehydrated from reducing his weight.

For this fight, Stiverne has chosen to bulk up, hoping that the extra size will help get the victory. That may not be though, because Stiverne weighed 254 lbs. for his last fight against Derric Rossy on November 14, 2015, and he barely won that fight by a 10 round unanimous decision. Rossy knocked Stiverne down in round 1, and he was connecting with big shots all throughout the fight.

During the face off, the rail-thin Wilder towered over Stiverne, and trash talked him the entire time. At one point, the 6’7” Wilder crouched down so he could look the 6’2” Stiverne in the eye. Stiverne looked thoroughly intimidated by Wilder the entire time. The body language of Stiverne was that of a frightened person. Stiverne exhibited no self-confidence. He looked like he didn’t believe in himself.

Hopefully we see more courage from Stiverne when he gets inside the ring on Saturday night against Wilder. Right now, the fight looks like it’s already over with. Stiverne looks like a beaten man.

Wilder’s 220 lbs. is close to the same weight he weighed for the first fight with Stiverne in 2015. Wilder weighed 219 lbs. for that fight, and he had no problems beating the 239 lb. Stiverne, who had a 20 pound weight advantage over him. It’s going to take a minor miracle for Stiverne to get the better of Wilder.

If Wilder comes out firing on all cylinders on Saturday, Stiverne better keep his chin tucked down or else he’s going to get poleaxed like Artur Szpilka. Wilder is talking about wanting to take Stiverne’s life on Saturday. Wilder wants to hurt Stiverne and make sure he never fights again. That can only mean one thing. Wilder is going to be loading up on right hands from the moment the fight starts, looking to KO Stiverne. That could play into Stiverne’s hands if Wilder gets too reckless and leaves himself open for a counter shot.

For Saturday’s fight, Stiverne will enjoy a 34 pound weight advantage over Wilder. Normally a weight advantage like that would spell victory in boxing, but not for this type of fight. The weight that Stiverne has put on since his first fight with Wilder appears to be a lot of fat rather than muscle. It’s understandable that Stiverne would gain weight, being that he’s been out of the ring for 2 years since his last fight against Rossy. Never the less, Stiverne should have been lighter. The only excuse I can think of in Stiverne’s defense is maybe he was thinking he didn’t need to be in top condition, because he was originally scheduled to fight Dominic Breazeale, a fighter that is flawed and beatable.

Stiverne might have thought that he could walk though Breazeale with ease. Still, it would have been risky for Stiverne to be as heavy as he is now for the Breazeale fight, because that’s a big heavyweight with a lot of reach and decent punching power. Breazeale would have been a handful for Stiverne with the condition he’s in right now.

It’s going to be very tough on Stiverne to be competitive with Wilder looking like he is right now. Stiverne weighed 248 lbs. for his first fight against Chris Arreola in 2013, and he fought well at that weight. However, that was 4 years ago, and Stiverne was facing a weak opponent without a lot of height and reach. It’s going to be tougher for Stiverne to deal with Wilder’s jabs, right hands and mobility. Stiverne will need to time Wilder and try and catch him with a big left hook when he throws one of his right hands.

If Wilder chooses to stay on the outside all night long and use his jab, then Stiverne won’t have much of a chance to win the fight. He’ll be as helpless as Saul Canelo Alvarez was in trying to fight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin when he was on the outside jabbing him at will. In that case, Stiverne will need judges that ignore jabs and only focus on scoring rounds on 1 to 3 hard punches landed.

In other weights on Saturday’s card on Showtime Boxing, former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (27-2-1, 17 KOs) weighed in at 146.5 lbs. for his fight against light welterweight Adrian Granados (18-5-2, 12 KOs). Granados, 28, weighed in at 146 lbs. Porter and Granados will be fighting for the vacant WBC Silver welterweight title. Porter is hoping to get a rematch against WBC welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman in 2018 if “One Time” can make it back into the ring in one piece. Thurman has been suffering a number of injuries recently, and it’s turned him into a once a year fighter. Porter will likely need to fight against someone else in the first half of 2018 while he waits for Thurman to get a tune-up fight out of the way. Granados lost his last fight to Adrien Broner earlier this year by a 10 round decision. Granados gave a good account of himself despite losing the contest. It looked like Granados did enough to deserve the win. Boxing News 24 had Granados winning the fight by a 6 rounds to 4 score.

Unbeaten Sergey Lipinets (12-0, 10 KOs) weighed in at 139.75 lbs. for his fight against 32-year-old Akihiro Kondo (29-6-1, 16 KOs) for the vacant IBF World light welterweight title. This is the title that Terence “Bud” Crawford recently vacated after the International Boxing Federation ordered him to defend against Lipinets. Kondo weighed in at 139.5 lbs. Kondo is ranked #3 by the IBF, and he’s won his last 8 fights since losing to Ricky Sismundo. Kondo had a rough career patch in 2014-2015, losing to Nihito Arakawa, Tomoya Yamada and Sismundo. Kondo’s wins since then have come against weak opposition.