by David P. Greisman
Deontay Wilder has never gone 12 rounds. He’s never gone 10. Or 8. Or 6. In fact, in his 32 wins, all by knockout, only four of his bouts even entered the fourth round.
Bermane Stiverne, the heavyweight titleholder Wilder is challenging on Jan. 17 on Showtime, has gone 12 rounds once, 10 rounds once and 8 rounds twice while compiling a record of 24-1-1 with 21 KOs.
But Wilder isn’t worried about going the distance — if their fight even does.
“Going past four rounds, that’s nothing. 12 rounds is an appetizer for me to a full-course meal. That’s nothing to me,” Wilder said on a Dec. 18 media conference call. “There’s nothing in the back of my mind that I cannot go past four rounds. When it’s time to fight, when the lights, camera, action, start, that’s the fun part for me.
“I want to make it easy. I want to make it a short night, cause guess what, I don’t get paid for overtime,” he said. “No need for me to stick around for overtime, but if the fight may go past 12, hey, let it go, we can go back to 15 if y’all want to do it and up the price on it. I have no concerns, no worries in my mind at all. And if I promise you, if it goes past four, then so be it, let’s go. Let the people get their money’s worth.”
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
