Negotiations are ongoing for Deontay "The Bronze Bomber" Wilder's mandatory fight with WBC champion Bermane Stiverne, and in an effort to speed up the process Wilder released a YouTube video in which he nicknames the belt "Sophia," and tells Stiverne he's going to take her.
An unimpressed Stiverne went on his Facebook page to express confusion about Wilder's post. "Somebody tell me what this jacka** is talking about," wrote Stiverne, "when we're waiting on him to sign his end of the deal. In the meantime I give him a B- [for] actin' skills.
"Reaching for what you called 'Sophia' will get you whacked. Sophia gon get you hurt," Stiverne said.
The video concludes with Wilder saying "Make the date. And bring Sophia with you." According to Stiverne's manager Camille Estephan Stiverne's already signed the paperwork though, and they are waiting on Wilder.
"Yes, we indeed have signed the contract to fight Deontay Wilder, nonetheless we still don't have a date yet," Estephan told World Boxing News. "We are waiting for the signatures from Wilder's camp before a date can be finalized, but Bermane is signed and ready for this fight."
Talks have been rocky throughout the entire process, and have included multiple postponements of a purse bid. It has been speculated that the postponements stem from powerful promoter Al Haymon trying to ensure that Jay Z's Roc Nation Sports remains blocked from the process, since they've shown a willingness to overbid the competition to get their footing in the sport.
Haymon and Jay Z are not friends, dating back to Haymon's time in the music business, and he's already believed to have wrecked one Roc Nation bout. The fledgling organization bid $1.9 million for a WBO middleweight title fight between "Kid Chocolate" Peter Quillin against Matt Korobov, but Quillin, a Haymon fighter, decided to pull out of the fight and vacate his title.
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