By Thomas Gerbasi

Don House has always been confident in Bermane Stiverne. But how confident is he that the WBC heavyweight champion will successfully defend his title against Deontay Wilder on Saturday night? So confident that he will be on an early morning flight to Boston on Sunday to work as a cutman for that night’s UFC Fight Night event.

So as far as he’s concerned, there will be no need to console his charge after a devastating loss of his title to the unbeaten former Olympic Bronze medalist. Instead, there will be a victory, a victory party, and then enough time to sleep on the cross-country flight.

You may call that the kind of bravado attached to any trainer’s media repertoire leading up to a big fight, but anyone who has known House for any length of time knows that the Las Vegan doesn’t pull punches and doesn’t say anything that he doesn’t believe in the pit of his stomach. That’s cost him some high-profile gigs over the years simply because he’s never been a ‘yes’ man. But on the flipside, if you have House in your corner and he believes in you, he will go through fire with you.

He’s believed in Stiverne ever since he first saw him in the gym in 2005 and was never shy about telling anyone who would listen about him. Nine years later, the Haiti native won a heavyweight championship by beating Chris Arreola via sixth round TKO last May, and even before the opening bell rang that night in Los Angeles, House had started to scout Mr. Wilder, the owner of a frightening 32-0, 32 KOs record.

“I started looking at Wilder around the Arreola fight because I knew they were gonna slide him in there,” he said. “But I’m not worried about him. I was more worried about Arreola than this guy right here.”

House has always said that Wilder isn’t all he’s been advertised as, and as the fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas approaches, he isn’t backing off in the slightest.

“One thing I will say about Wilder – he can give it, but I don’t think he can take it. That’s gonna be the difference.”

But what if he gives “it” to Stiverne early and the 36-year-old falls like the rest of Wilder’s foes?

“Well, he is the baddest guy on the planet, which means he should knock us out,” House said, tongue firmly planted in cheek. “And if he does, then my hat’s off to him. That means he’s a bad dude. Or he’s not.”

Simply put, House doesn’t think Wilder’s power is as potent as his record may show it to be. He’s especially critical of his controversial finish of Malik Scott in Puerto Rico last March, and his unimpressive stoppage of Jason Gavern last August.

“If you go back to his last fight, he didn’t show off any power,” he said. “Jason Gavern took the fight on six days’ notice, and he (Wilder) didn’t show anything. He pushed him down, hit him behind the head, so Jason decided he had enough.”

Wilder is the favorite though, not just according to the oddsmakers, but among fans thirsting for a heavyweight from the United States to stake his claim to a belt and then set his sights on Wladimir Klitschko. Wilder has the KO power, the gaudy record, and the charisma and back story to make fans in the U.S. care about heavyweights again. Stiverne is a lot more low key, content just to show up and fight.

“Right now, to him, everything is just the fight,” House said. “All the stuff outside of that, he doesn’t care. It hasn’t hit him. To him, this is just a regular fight.”

That’s probably the best attitude to have. But it’s not just a regular fight, and Stiverne has heard the talk from Wilder in the lead-up to the fight. He is also aware that he is seen by some as just a guy holding the crown until Wilder’s coronation. That has fired up the champion, who wants to end the fight as soon as possible. House would like a more measured approach.

“Bermane wants to just get rid of him right away,” he said. “And that’s fine. You knock him out in the first 30 seconds, I’m all good with that. But I don’t mind exposing him and taking him deep. The pressure’s not on us. Here’s a guy, 32-0 trying to get himself to 33-0. That’s a lot of pressure. He’s got to try to keep that zero on the end of that record. And now he’s also got to be the great American heavyweight champion.”

But if he’s not, will Stiverne inherit that attention and goodwill from the boxing public?

“I think they’ll come back with ‘well, Wilder really didn’t fight anybody, he should have ran through him,’” House said. “I think we’ll get that, then ‘well, he didn’t fight Klitschko yet and Klitschko still has all the other belts.’ So I don’t know if he’s going to be accepted or not.”

House knows his man is going to win though. The question is, how will he do it on Saturday night?

“I’ve got two versions, Bermane’s version and my version,” he explains. “Bermane’s version is to take it to the guy. He told me that I was off that night. He said ‘I don’t need no instructions; all I need you to do is point me in his direction and I’m going after him and I’m gonna get rid of him as fast as I can.’ I like that version, it’s a good version. But my version is, I would like him to stay in his chest and break him down and take him into the deep waters. I would like to take him into round six or round seven, somewhere he has never been before. I’d like to see that.”