Last night in Miami, on Don King’s latest show (yes, the 91 year old is still going!), likeable, easy to root for heavyweight Jonathan Guidry pounded out a ten round unanimous decision win over faded former WBC heavyweight champ Bermane Stiverne. Scores were heavily lopsided in favour of 33 year old Guidry, at 100-91, 100-91 and 97-93. Guidry, who King dubbed the “Swamp King,” is now 19-1-2(11) and he retained his WBA NABA “gold” belt. Stiverne, who is now 44 years of age and has lost his last four fights, falls to 25-6-1(21).
There wasn’t much action in the fight last night, with Guidry being by far the busier man. Stiverne, in sort of decent shape, was simply unable to let his hands go, that or he was unwilling to unload for fear of being countered. Guidry, who stands 5’11” and came in at 253 pounds, did let his punches go and he piled up the points with his output. Again, not a thrilling fight by any means but a good win for Guidry.
Guidry, who is trained by his brother and works a full-time job to go along with his boxing career (Guidry of South Louisiana is a crab and shrimp fisherman) is an interesting story and it would be great to see this genuine nice guy of the sport accomplish big things. In many ways, Guidry has already gone further than perhaps even he ever expected; headlining the show as he did last night.
Guidry has never been stopped, he took the fight he lost, to Trevor Bryan, at short-notice, and he has been involved in fun fights. It will be interesting to see where Guidry goes from here. Guidry has said in the past that he would love to box in the UK one day.
As for Stiverne, he surely must now call it a career. Good enough at his best to defeat Chris Arreola, twice, in briefly holding the WBC title, “B. Ware” has since then been blasted out by Deontay Wilder and Joe Joyce. Stiverne may have looked at his ability to go the distance against Guidry as something of a moral victory.