• Boxing

Unbeaten Wilder to face Stiverne

Deontay Wilder has won all of his 32 bouts by knockout © AP

Enlarge

Heavyweight world titleholder Bermane Stiverne will make his first defence against unbeaten - but untested - Deontay Wilder in a long overdue mandatory fight on January 17 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The fight, which matches big-time punchers and whose negotiations dragged on for months, was announced on Saturday night on American network Showtime, which will televise the bout, during the telecast of the Amir Khan-Devon Alexander card, also at the MGM Grand.

"This will be a momentous day in heavyweight boxing history," said Don King, Stiverne's promoter, who spent months locked in a brutal negotiation with Wilder adviser Al Haymon. "Just more than 40 years removed from the 'Rumble in the Jungle' with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, the heavyweights - WBC world champion Bermane Stiverne and Deontay Wilder - will 'Return to Glory.' The little guys in boxing are great but it's the heavyweights that have always excited fans the most.

"Bermane, he's a knockout artist just like Mike Tyson. Wilder, he talks trash but is a good fighter, too. This is a must-see fight."

Las Vegas-based Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs), the first Haitian-born heavyweight titleholder, knocked out Chris Arreola in May in Los Angeles to win the title that Vitali Klitschko vacated upon his retirement in December 2013. The 6-foot-2, 240-pound Stiverne, 36, who has sniped with Wilder via social media for the past few months, said he is planning on notching another knockout.

"Don't blink on January 17," said Wilder, who was at the Khan-Alexander card. "I am the heavyweight champion of the world and nobody is going to beat me. I'm excited and I'm looking forward to making a statement. Talk is cheap. I do my talking in the ring.

"I'm all business. The only time he's going to get my attention is the night of the fight. I promise you, he will get more than he bargained for and more than he's expecting."

Wilder, 29, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, won a 2008 Olympic bronze medal - the last American man to win an Olympic boxing medal - and has been manoeuvred very carefully into the mandatory position. Although Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs) has a glittering record and carries a massive right hand, he has faced nobody of remote consequence. The biggest name on his record is long-faded former titlist Sergei Liakhovich, whom Wilder knocked out so severely in the first round in August 2013 that Liakhovich's body was twitching when it hit the canvas.

"I'm expecting a short night because we have bad blood," Wilder said of Stiverne. "I really want to hurt this guy, and I haven't felt this way in a long time. I want to show him this is no joke, this is real. This is business. This is the hurt game and my power is real. I told him that I'll whoop his a** and I'm going to keep my promise."

Although the recognised world heavyweight champion is Wladimir Klitschko - he is the lineal champion and also holds three of the four major alphabet belts - a Wilder victory would be significant as he would become the first American-born heavyweight titleholder since Shannon Briggs, who won a belt by 12th-round knockout of Liakhovich in November 2006 and then lost it in his first defence by lopsided decision to Sultan Ibragimov in June 2007.

"Now I can make all my dreams come true, I can make it a reality," Wilder said. "America is yearning for a heavyweight world champion. We haven't had a real one since the days of Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. Everyone just sits back and remembers the glory days. America has been waiting for their champion and I've arrived."

Said Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya, Wilder's promoter: "Fight fans across the United States have been clamouring for an American heavyweight champion for nearly a decade, and Deontay Wilder may well answer their wishes on January 17. Stiverne brings power and experience. Wilder brings power and youth. This is set up to be an explosive fight that I can't wait to see."

The 6-foot-7, 225-pound Wilder has never been past the fourth round and never been remotely tested because his opposition has been so weak. He has fought only a total of 58 professional rounds, an average of 1.8 rounds per bout. He has 18 knockouts in the first round and eight in the second.

"I can't help that I always knock my guys out," Wilder said. "It's not my fault I make it look easy. When I knock Stiverne out I don't want to hear any whispers. I don't want to hear people say that he was a bum. I want the world to bow down and praise the heavyweight champion of the world. They have to finally admit that I'm just that good."

Junior featherweight titleholder Leo Santa Cruz (28-0-1, 16 KOs), 26, of Rosemead, California, will defend his belt for the fourth time against an opponent to be determined in the televised co-feature.

This article originally appeared on ESPN.com

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd