Bermane Stiverne – Alexander Povetkin Breaking News

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By James “The Truth” Doell

A fight for the interim WBC heavyweight title between the #1 ranked heavyweight Alexander Povetkin, 30-1, 22 KO’s, and #2 ranked heavyweight Bermane Stiverne, 25-2-1, 21 KO’s, will be taking place in Russia. A purse bid was ordered by the WBC to take place Friday October 7th, in New York, after both teams were unable to reach an agreement for the fight. Three promoters bid on the fight; Don king, who handles Povetkin, World of Boxing, who handles Povetkin, and Titov Boxing Promotions, a Russian based promotional company. Andrey Ryabinsky of World of Boxing won the rights to the fight with a bid of $3.16 Million. Povetkin and Stiverne will split that money evenly.

Alexander Povetkin has already won a world title at heavyweight once before. He beat Ruslan Chagaev, 34-3, 21 KO’s, for the vacant WBA world heavyweight title via unanimous decision in august of 2011. He went on to successfully defend this title four times before losing it in a bout with then heavyweight kingpin Wladimir Klitschko, 64-4, 53 KO’s, via unanimous decision in a very anti climactic fight to mark his first professional defeat. Povetkin has bounced back well from that fight, and hasn’t lost since. He has stopped his last four opponents, including knockout wins over former title challenger Manuel Charr, 30-4, 17 KO’s, and Cuban contender Mike Perez, 21-2, 13 KO’s.

Bermane Stiverne has a mediocre resume, but he is also a former world champion at heavyweight. He fought Chris Arreola, 36-5, 31 KO’s, for the WBC silver heavyweight title in March of 2013, and won by unanimous decision, handing Arreola the second loss of his career. A little over a year later, and the two would meet again in the ring for a rematch, this time for the vacant WBC world heavyweight title that was vacated by Vitali Klitschko following his retirement from the sport. Stiverne didn’t have a long title reign however, as he lost his belt in his next fight with current champion Deontay Wilder. He took the first step to getting a shot at Wilder for a second time on November 14, 2015 when he won a ten round unanimous decision over Derric Rossy, 30-12, 14 KO’s, to set up a fight for the interim title with Povetkin.

The winner of this fight will go on to challenge Deontay Wilder, 37-0, 36 KO’s, for his full version of the WBC world heavyweight title. Wilder first won the title in January of 2015, when he won a unanimous decision over Stiverne, marking the first time Wilder went the distance in his professional career. Stiverne was later admitted to the hospital after the fight due to severe dehydration. In most boxing fans minds, it was Wilder’s first real test and he passed.

He has went on to make four successful title defenses, all by way of stoppage. He was then ordered by the WBC to make a mandatory title defense against Alexander Povetkin. The bout was scheduled to take place on may 21, 2016 in Russia, after World of Boxing won the rights to the fight via purse bid. Leading up to the bout however, Povetkin failed a drug test for a newly banned substance called Meldonium. The fight as then cancelled, and Wilder was granted another voluntary title defense. He picked former title challenger Chris Arreola for the defense and dominated the fight, stopping him in the eighth round.

Unfortunately for Wilder, he broke his right hand for the third time and tore a muscle in his bicep during his fight with Arreola. His injuries required two surgeries, and will keep him out of the ring for the remainder of the year.

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