By CARLOS ARIAS
LOS ANGELES --- Being the mandatory challenger doesn't mean you always get the next world title shot against the champion, especially, when Don King is involved.
The WBC had already deemed Deontay Wilder the mandatory challenger before Bermane Stiverne scored a brutal sixth-round knockout over Chris Arreola on Saturday night at USC's Galen Center on ESPN.
"No matter what they say about mandatories the rules say he can fight whoever he wants to fight, then fight the mandatory," said King, who promotes Stiverne. "We're jumping ahead of ourselves. We don't say who so ever will come is what we say in the Baptist church.
WBO/IBO/WBA/IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and his brother Vitali Klitschko, who vacated the WBC title so he could concentrate on his work for the Ukrainian parliament, sent letters to the WBC seeking the opportinity to fight the Stiverne-Arreola winner to unify the titles.
"I think he will become a unified champion," King said of Stiverne, "but it all takes its time. ... The idea is he's going to get to be world champion and then he gonna be a unified champion. Right now, let him enjoy, let him enjoy, like he says, he's like a man that's been knocked out with something good that he can enjoy. What we really want to is see (Arreola's promoter) Dan (Goossen) bald headed."
Stiverne didn't commit to any future fights.
"Right now, all I want to do is enjoy this," Stiverne said. "I'm not thinking about what's next. Obviously, sometime I will be fighting again. We just have to see."
How does Stiverne's trainer Don House think Stiverne, a 6-2, 240-pounder, would fare against Klitschko, a 6-6, 250-pounder, or Wilder, a 6-6 1/2, 227-pounder.
"Those 6-4, 6-7, 6-9 guys, I never worry about those type of guys," House said. "You know, (Mike) Tyson ate those guys up. (Stiverne has the) same body frame as Tyson. We got the strength. We got the power. These guys are so tall we eat 'em all up."
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