Negotiations for a bout between WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne and Deontay "The Bronze Bomber" Wilder continue to move at a snail's pace. Despite reports of a December bout being locked in, Stiverne's promoter Don King told BoxingScene.com that there's no deal yet.
That flies in the face of WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman's announcement that an agreement was reached. "We have been informed that both Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions and Don King's Don King Productions have already agreed to fight in mid-December, and therefore the purse bid scheduled for next week will be avoided," Sulaiman said.
Previously, there had been no reason given for the postponement of the purse bid, but then Sulaiman revealed that they two sides had agreed to the mid-December date.
Wilder had hoped to have already fought Stiverne at this point in time, but Stiverne's been shelved with a hand injury sustained when he defeated Chris Arreola for the second time. Last month Wilder knocked out Jason Gavern in a tune-up fight that lasted into the fourth round.
Wilder is 32-0-0 with all 32 wins coming by way of knockout. Wilder's quality of competition has been questioned, however-Stiverne represents a drastic jump in resume from Wilder's previous conquests.
The lackluster performance vs. Gavern was brought up to Wilder by Showtime's Brian Kenny, but the Bronze Bomber said it was by design.
"I wanted to get a couple of rounds," Wilder said. "My main goal was to get a couple of rounds and not so much go looking for the knockout. I could have had him out in the first round when he started moving to his right. He was right there lined up for my right hand. That wasn't my plan of doing. I didn't want to give away too much as well too because I knew my opposition would be looking as well, along with a lot of other guys. Everything worked out like we wanted it."
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