By CARLOS ARIAS
LOS ANGELES --- There's no mystery to who newly-crowned WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne will be fighting in his first title defense. Deontay Wilder has already been deemed his mandatory challenger.
Wilder was ringside to witness Stiverne's brutal sixth-round knockout of Chris Arreola to claim the vacant WBC heavyweight championship on Saturday night at USC's Galen Center.
"I wasn't surprised," Wilder said. "He brought the same thing he brought the last fight. I did think he was more eager to win this fight. He was on a mission to prove a little bit more. He said he was going to knock him out and he knocked him out. When you have a prize as big as the WBC belt on the line, it's going to bring a different beast out of you, and I'm happy for him."
So how does Wilder see a fight with Stiverne going?
"It's an easy fight," Wilder said. "Easy fight. Easy fight. It's an easy fight because I have so much more advantages. I'm taller, my arms are longer, I'm faster, I'm stronger and, you know, I'm sexier.
"Everything is long for me, so that will keep me out of harm. His arms just to short. But who knows? This is boxing and this is the heavyweight division. I don't want to put myself out like I'm not human or a robot. I'm not Bernard Hopkins. I'm not an alien. I'm Deontay Wilder and I definitely could be knocked out too, so I never look past nobody. When you get in that ring and all that talking ceases and nobody talking for you, the fists do the talking. I think it's going to be a great fight when the time comes. It's been a long time coming. The heavyweight division is back. I'm just excited to be bringing it back to where it once was. Now I have arrived. Deontay Wilder, baby."
Wilder wants his shot at Stiverne as soon as possible.
"We predict he is going to try to sit on this belt, but it's not going to happen," Wilder said. "I am the official mandatory. I will be fighting for that belt. There's no going to try and unify all the belts. You gotta go through me. Both of those guys (Stiverne and Arreola) have been trying to hide from me from Day 1. When they found out they were going to fight for this belt, they didn't want to mention Deontay Wilder. They said, 'Deontay Wilder is not in my league. Deontay Wilder don't deserve to be here. Deontay Wilder hasn't done anything.' Well, what have they done. OK, Chris won a couple of fights and fought for the world title a couple of times. Bermane Stiverne has done nothing. He only fought Chris Arreola and that's how he got his shot. I mean, other than that, you tally up his opponents and mine. You look at all my credentials and who deserves it? In that case I should be fighting for it now and he should be the mandatory."
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