Well history was made tonight at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, California as Bermane “B.Ware” Stiverne and Chris “Nightmare” Arreola gave the boxing world one of the most entertaining heavyweight championship fights witnessed in a long time.
Stiverne played the ole “Rope-A-Dope” in this fight that proved to be effective as he leaned on the ropes early on in the fight and allowed Arreola to tee off on him as he looked to counter Arreola’s aggressive onslaught when Arreola threw his power punches. Both fighters did a good job in this fight using their jabs as Arreola had success in hurting Stiverne early on with hard shots by using his good jab to set up the power shots that landed on Stiverne. Stiverve, however, used his good left up jab to set up shots downstairs to the body and counterpunches on Arreola when he leaned on the ropes and in the center of the ring.
Again, there were times early in the fight where Stiverne looked like he was going to get taken out by Arreola because he did get seriously hurt by those big Arreola power shots in rounds 2 and 3; particularly the lead right hand that Arreola shot through the middle of Stiverne’s guard, but Stiverne just continued to back up against the ropes and wait for his moment to explode.
Stiverne would continue to go back to the ropes in this fight to allow Arreola to throw more punches so that he can land his combinations on Arreola’s body; while Arreola continued to stalk Stiverne relentlessly in rounds 4 and 5 as his stamina looked incredible and it seemed as though Arreola could have kept up that vigorous boxing pace for 12 rounds.
Now round 6!! Stiverne started to use that left up jab to the head and body of Arreola; while Arreola continued his relentless attack as he continued to move forward and throw punches in bunches. Arreola continued to stalk Stiverne, but for one split second he got lazy; and Stiverne caught him with a beautiful right hook to the temple that was set up by that up jab which sent him crashing to the canvas.
Arreola got up off of the canvas at the count of 8 but was knocked down again by Stiverne in the 6th. The referee asked Arreola if he could continue and Arreola said yes so the ref let Arreola continue, but with over a minute left in the round, it simply spelled doom for Arreola as it turned out to be too much time left in the round as Stiverve continued his vicious attack on Arreola and closed the show by landing a barrage of power punches to Arreola’s head which prompted the referee to stop the fight.
Bermane “B.Ware” Stiverne was awarded the 6th round TKO victory and is now the new WBC heavyweight champion of the world!! With the win, Stiverne became the 1st Haitian born fighter to win the heavyweight crown.
Conclusion
Stiverne was talking to Arreola in the ring the entire fight. What he was saying, I don’t know, but one thing I like about the new champ is that he is a very patient fighter who picks he shots when the opportunity arises and that is what “The Sweet Science” is all about. Arreola fought a great fight tonight; and before the TKO, he was actually winning the fight on the scorecards, but he simply got lazy for a split second and got caught by a big right hook that knocked his equilibrium off and he never recovered from it.
Arreola will still be a force to deal with in the heavyweight division as his aggressive style will always put fans in the seats.
As for Stiverne; with the win, this puts the new champ in a great situation as his next opponent will be either undefeated knockout king Deontay Wilder or Wladimir Klitschko who wants to badly unify all of the titles. I would not mind watching Stiverne fight either one of these guys because no matter who he fights next, it will finally create a positive buzz in the heavyweight division that the boxing world has not felt in a very long time.
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