WBC Heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder will now defend his belt against the man he won it from – Canadian fighter Bermane Stiverne. Stiverne replaces the power punching Luis “King Kong” Ortiz who failed a drug test last week.

Stiverne was supposed to fight fellow contender Dominic Breazeale in the undercard. Instead he will now face Wilder in the main event of this Showtime event  on November 4th, 2017 at the Barclays Center in New York.

Rematch

Wilder and Stiverne met in 2015 under different circumstances. Stiverne was the champion and Wilder the challenger. The latter won the contest via unanimous decision and took the WBC belt home to Tuscaloosa , Alabama.  Wilder has since defended the belt successfully five times.

Wilder was supposed to fight Ortiz to silence  his detractors who have always criticized his level of competition. But the Cuban tested positive for two diuretic drugs chlorothiazide and hydrochlorothiazide, which are used to treat high blood pressure but which can be used as masking agents for steroids. Ortiz said it was used for the former but didn’t ask for medical exemption from VADA.

Size Advantage

Just as he was in their first bout, Wilder is the favorite here. The Bronze Bomber is a -700 against Stiverne who is at +425 for this rematch. We saw what Wilder did in the first bout. Wilder used his size advantage over Stiverne to dictate the fight from the outside.

Before their first bout, Wilder was 32-0 with 32 KOs and many people thought he was all about knocking people out. But against Stiverne, he used every inch of his 83 inch reach advantage to keep the hard hitting Canadian at bay. Wilder dominated the fight with his jab and continued to pepper Stiverne with big right hands. He won handily in the scorecards.

Can’t Get Going

Stiverne is a conservative counter puncher and he won’t win this fight fighting at a distance because he gives up too much size against Deontay Wilder. He has to take this fight close since his best punches are the compact hooks which he throws from the inside. To get inside though, he must take chances and risk getting hit by Wilder’s bombs.

Stiverne successfully avoided getting floored or knocked out in the first bout. However, he wasn’t able to get his offense going because he was busy fending off Wilder’s punches. We’re not saying that Stiverne has no shot at winning this because he does have power in both hands.

However, Wilder beat him two years ago, when the Bronze Bomber was a raw talent. With Wilder now smarter and more intelligent, an older Stiverne is in for all sorts of problems.

Prediction

It’s not Deontay Wilder’s fault that he will be fighting Bermane Stiverne. Luis Ortiz couldn’t do his part. Now Wilder says that Stiverne is  going to pay for Oritz’s miscues. Doesn’t get any worse for Bermane Stiverne.

We’re picking Deontay Wilder to win this fight. f there’s a man to beat Wider, it won’t be Stiverne.  He already knows what Stiverne brings to the table and he has improved so much in the last couple of years. So don’t be surprised if Wilder is going to win this one by knockout.