Wilder decisions Stiverne; Santa Cruz defeats Ruiz

By Rob Smith - 01/17/2015 - Comments

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) kept his unbeaten record but he was extended for the first time in his career in having to go the distance to defeat WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-2-1, 21 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in front of 8,300 boxing fans at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Wilder, 6’7”, hurt Stiverne in the 2nd and 7th rounds with big right hand shots. However, he was unable to finish him off. Wilder was arguably robbed of a knockdown in the 2nd when he staggered Stiverne with a right hand, causing him to stumble and fall.

While falling, Stiverne pulled Wilder down with him. Referee Tony Weeks blew the call and ruled that it wasn’t a knockdown even though it seemed pretty clear that Stiverne was knocked down. Deontay tried arguing with Weeks but he wouldn’t reverse the call.

Stiverne had his moments in rounds 5 and 8, as he landed some big shots to the head and body of Wilder. The punches weren’t enough to do any real damage though. Each time Stiverne would have some moments, Wilder would come back with his long jab to spear him from the outside, and then nail him with some monstrous right hands.

From rounds 9 through 12, Wilder appeared to be basically coasting. He jabbed frequently and circled the ring to avoid Stiverne’s big power shots. For the most part, Deontay looked tired and rarely threw right hands from that point on.

The MGM crowd booed periodically starting in the 11th round due to the slow pace of the fight. They wanted to see Deontay shoot for the knockout, but he was far too tired to muster up more than a small handful of right hands. The punches were still powerful enough to knockout most heavyweights in the division, but Stiverne took the shots well.

In the 12th, Stiverne tried to push the action in pressuring Deontay, but it was useless. Deontay stayed close and leaned on Stiverne for most of the round, and prevented him from being able to get any real leverage on his shots.

The final judges’ scores were 118-109, 119-108, 120-107.

Other boxing action on tonight’s card:

Leo Santa Cruz TKO 8 Jesus Ruiz
Amir Imam TKO 5 Fidel Maldonado Jr
Vyacheslav Shabranskyy RTD 9 Garrett Wilson
Eric Molina TKO 8 Raphael Zumbano Love