Stiverne-Ortiz Unlikely, Don King Refuses To Sign Off

By Steve Kim

There had been a lot of talk surrounding a possible heavyweight clash between former WBC belt-holder, Bermane Stiverne and the undefeated Luis Ortiz (22-0, 19 KO's) being added to the October 17th pay-per-view card at the Madison Square Garden that is headlined by the middleweight unification tilt between Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux.

Already on the undercard is Roman Gonzalez-Brian Viloria for the WBC flyweight crown and the IBF middleweight eliminator between Tureano Johnson and Eamonn O'Kane.

But alas, it looks like K2 and Golden Boy will have to look in another direction to till out that card.

"Don King refused to sign the contract for Stiverne-Oritz and right now we don't have an offer on the table," said a frustrated Camille Estephan, the head of Eye of the Tiger Management, which handles Stiverne.

King promotes Stiverne, who lost his heavyweight title to Deontay Wilder in January and hasn't fought since.

"We don't have anything on the table and we're in waiting mode. It's horrible because Bermane's been training since March, he's ready and revving to go and we have no fight," continued Estephan, who added that while the fights not completely dead, stated bluntly - ''I'm not very hopeful."

Stiverne has a record of 24-2-1 (21 KO's). He won the WBC belt in May of 2014 by stopping Chris Arreola in six rounds at the Galen Center on the campus of USC before getting beat by Wilder in his lone title defense. What's really problematic for Stiverne is that he's 36 years old.

Estephan stated,"I'm extremely disappointed, I'm very concerned for Stiverne's career."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com