Lou DiBella posed a legitimate question recently regarding Bermane Stiverne’s status.
DiBella, who’s promoting the card headlined by the Deontay Wilder-Stiverne rematch Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, can’t think of any reasonable justification for Stiverne being the WBC’s mandatory challenger for Wilder’s title. Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs), who’ll turn 39 on Wednesday, has fought just once in nearly three years since losing the WBC heavyweight title to Wilder.
Since dropping a one-sided, 12-round decision to Wilder in January 2015, Stiverne’s lone appearance in the ring amounted to a subpar performance against Long Island’s Derric Rossy (31-13, 15 KOs). Stiverne suffered a first-round knockdown during that bout, but came back to win a 10-round unanimous decision in November 2015 in Las Vegas.
Somehow, though, Stiverne ascended to the top spot in the WBC’s rankings and will receive a rematch with Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) that he seemingly doesn’t deserve.
“How do you fight one fight in two years against a guy that knocked you down and subsequently gets knocked out, and barely do anything, and you’re still the WBC mandatory?,” DiBella asked during a recent conference call. “That would’ve been a better question. But in the meantime, there’s nothing we can do about it. November 4th, I’m worried about this fight because Stiverne’s got nothing to lose and Deontay’s got everything to lose.”
The Haitian-born, Las Vegas-based Stiverne remains the only opponent to go the distance with Wilder since the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, native turned pro in November 2008.
Stiverne, who is promoted by Don King, was supposed to box Russia’s Alexander Povetkin for the WBC’s interim heavyweight title December 17 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The winner was to become the mandatory challenger for Wilder, but Stiverne withdrew from their fight December 16 when the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association revealed Povetkin had failed another pre-fight test for a performance-enhancing drug.
Povetkin (32-1, 23 KOs) instead knocked out last-second replacement Johann Duhaupas (36-4, 23 KOs) in the sixth round of a non-title bout. The WBC eventually elevated Stiverne into the top spot in its heavyweight rankings.
He later accepted a six-figure sum, stepped aside and allowed Wilder to sign a contract to face unbeaten Cuban southpaw Luis Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs, 2 NC). Ortiz also tested positive for two banned substances and the WBC ordered Wilder to fight Stiverne again Saturday night (Showtime; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
DiBella: How Did Inactive Stiverne Become Wilder’s Mandatory?
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Ruthless-RKO
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Re: DiBella: How Did Inactive Stiverne Become Wilder’s Mandatory?
"Another???" ... Povetkin never failed any previous PED test... WADA, VADA, and the WBC all admitted that he didn't fail ANY tests for Meldonium and kept him as number 1 mandatory Heavyweight Contender for Wilder. But they put an additional hurdle in front of him in Stiverne, which Povetkin had no trouble with... Ryabinsky again won the purse bid and the fight moved forward until Stiverne failed a PED test...Ruthless-RKO wrote: Stiverne, who is promoted by Don King, was supposed to box Russia’s Alexander Povetkin for the WBC’s interim heavyweight title December 17 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The winner was to become the mandatory challenger for Wilder, but Stiverne withdrew from their fight December 16 when the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association revealed Povetkin had failed another pre-fight test for a performance-enhancing drug
Stiverne absolutely failed a PED test for Povetkin, but it was swept under a rug. The Russian agreed the fight could go forward anyway. But 24 hours before Povetkin-Stiverne, VADA allegedly came up with a PED reading for Povetkin that showed 1/10th of 1 nanogram of Ostarine. Stiverne pulled out.
Bear in mind that Povetkin’s test for 70 nanograms of Meldonium was ruled fine in the end. Because it was well under the maximum allowable concentration of 1000 nanograms...or 1 milligram.. However VADA said they’ve never established a minimum concentration for Ostarine, even though they admitted that such a low concentration had no possible effect on athletic performance.. Povetkin insists he never took Ostarine and was tested by several alternative labs at the same time – and none of them could find the slightest trace of Ostarine. VADA got around that by saying 1/10th of a nonogram may only show up in 1 of 100 tests. But their policy was, any amount was positive.