Deontay Wilder’s first round KO of former world champ Bermane Stiverne last Saturday night at the Barclays Center was the real deal. It was no Malik Scott-type of KO that has broadcasters spraining their brain stems trying to explain why a punch to the air was enough to render a foe unconscious. Stiverne was hit hard and went down honestly.
Although the former champ being overweight and coming off two years of inactivity takes plenty of luster from the feat, blowing away a usually cement-chinned fighter is a nice accomplishment. And Wilder pretty much had to do something like this to salvage this evening.
Losing out on a Luis Ortiz bout was a major buzzkill and then getting Stiverne as the substitute made things even worse. The only way for Wilder to come out ahead was for him to register a quick and explosive KO.
Now, with the Stiverne blowout complete, Wilder has a case for getting a shot at Anthony Joshua money, even though Joshua and his people seem ambivalent about a unification bout at this point. There are plenty of big paydays out there that present less of a risk for Joshua and it’s smart business to explore those. It seems that fans are dead set on throwing their support behind the guy no matter what, so the smart money is on the path of least resistance, at least for now.
This is almost the same scenario we saw when Canelo Alvarez wanted to make Gennady Golovkin wait his turn while he picked at low hanging fruit first. Like it or not, it’s part of the business.
It’s interesting, though, to see how people respond to this dynamic, depending on who is executing it. Double standards abound in boxing.
-- Shawn Porter, in his unanimous decision victory over Adrian Granados on the Wilder-Stiverne undercard, looked sharper than I have ever seen him before. Porter gets knocked for being a dirty fighter, but that’s really not the case at all—he’s a sloppy fighter. And much of that sloppiness was the result of a poor inside game. Generally speaking, Porter’s positioning on the inside was awful and the end result would be ugly mauling that not only smothered his own punches, but also resulted in awkward clashes with heads, shoulders, elbows, etc. But not on Saturday.
Against Granados, Porter looked like a complete fighter. It remains to be seen whether this was because of work Porter has put in behind the scenes or simply because he was facing a predictable, simple-to-read opponent. I hope it’s the former because Porter, the man, is everything you’d want from a prizefighter and another run at the top, as a truly balanced fighter, would be awesome for the welterweight division.
-- Speaking of PBC’s welterweight roster...Would a three-fight, PPV-quality card on network TV be something the Al Haymon joint can swing (and succeed at turning into a money maker)? A little bit down the line, Keith Thurman-Errol Spence, Porter-Danny Garcia, and maybe Adrien Broner-Granados II would be a card worth exploring for a big-time network event.
I’d eventually like to see a two-tier broadcast strategy for PBC—low-end and mid-level stuff for basic cable outlets and network TV for what would normally be considered PPV material. Maybe we even nix the Showtime stuff completely if possible.
Yes, boxing should be freeeeeeee….and promoters/networks/managers should figure out healthier ways to make a buck from boxing. Putting everything behind a paywall is a self-defeating business strategy. And that should be without question.
-- 44-year-old Ricardo Mayorga quit after nine godawful rounds against Andrey Sirotkin in Russia this past Friday. I only mention this because it inspired an idea while surviving through 45+ minutes of awfulness. If Mayorga and Antonio Margarito insist on fighting, why not just have them fight each other? Provided Mayorga can squeeze down to middleweight (he fought at a fleshy 168 in Russia), this one would be easy to sell as an indy PPV. Hell, have them fight one another a bunch of times—over and over again—on a garbage barge in international waters if need be. Sprinkle in some other quasi-, semi-middleweight oddities like Omar Chavez, Jorge Paez Jr., Shane Mosley Jr., and Ramon Alvarez and just have them all mix it up for all eternity.
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