By Rick Reeno

Former heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-2-1, 21KOs) is still sitting on the sidelines, hoping to return in the very near future.

He was scheduled to face dangerous Luis Ortiz on the Gennady Golovkin-David Lemieux undercard on October 17th, but that match fell through after his promoter, Don King, refused to sign off on the fight. Stiverne signed the contract as soon as he received it.

Stiverne has been out of the ring since losing a twelve round decision, and his WBC title, to Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33KOs) in January. Stiverne was hospitalized after the fight due to severe dehydration.

Expecting the new champion to raise his level of competition, Stiverne is very disappointed with Wilder's title run. Since the big win, Wilder faced number 7 ranked Eric Molina in June and the next scheduled opponent is number 11 ranked Johann Duhaupas of France.

"It's embarrassing, it's embarrassing. All of this is him trying to avoid his mandatory, but it won't last too long," Stiverne told BoxingScene.com.

Wilder's mandatory challenger is Olympic gold medal winner Alexander Povetkin (29-1, 21KOs), who's sole defeat came at the hands of heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko. Povetkin's is staying busy with his third fight of the year on November 4th against Mariusz Wach.

Once Wilder and Povetkin meet, Stiverne is very confident of the outcome. He predicts the talented Russian fighter will win, by knockout, in the first five rounds.

"He will have to face Povetkin at some point and that's when it stops, because I believe Povetkin will knock him out in five rounds or something like that," Stiverne said.

"He dodged two bullets with me, but I believe once he faces Povetkin - that's when it stops. The proof is in the pudding. If I was champion, I would go down the list - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. But obviously he goes the other way - 7, 8, 9, 10. Everybody sees what it is. He's doesn't even go after a top ten fighter. They know what they are doing. Al [Haymon] knows what he has," Stiverne said.

Stiverne also said he wasn't surprised to see Molina momentarily rock Wilder in their match. Molina was used by Stiverne as a sparring partner in the past.

"[I wasn't surprised], of course not. Eric has been my sparring partner for a couple months. I always said that the only chance Molina had was to land that right hand. He landed it, but not clear enough. I think anyone who lands a good right hand would knock him out. He's not as dangerous as people make it seem that he is," Stiverne said.