Deontay Wilder Has Questions to Answer Before He's Ready for Wladimir Klitschko

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Deontay Wilder's name bears bronze. His crown, however, glistens with gold.

Boxing's newest champion took his seat at the fistic round table last Saturday, defeating Bermane Stiverne (24-2-1, 21 KO) over a surprising 12 full rounds for the WBC heavyweight title. Heavy artillery was traded, but The Bronze Bomber's attack was triumphant.

It was the biggest test of his fighting career. He passed with ease, walking away the winner on wide scorecards of 120-107, 119-108 and 119-108. But questions remain.

Could he have taken out the former champ provided he went in with a wiser game plan? 

It was the first time in his 33-fight career that Wilder (33-0, 32 KO) fought passed the fourth round. His stamina didn't falter, sure. But was this a sign of overrated knockout power?

Stiverne wasn't a proven champion, and it's silly to think a win over him answers all the question marks surrounding the super athlete out of Alabama. The "future of the heavyweight division," however, thinks he's ready for whatever the weight class can throw his way.

"I want to fight three, four, five times a year," Wilder said, speaking to Boxing News. "I'm ready whenever."

Per ESPN, he even has his eyes set on a unification bout with Wladimir Klitschko by the end of the year. But was there anything from his title-winning effort opposite of Stiverne to suggest he could possibly be ready for that?

Alabama Power

Wilder's punching power has been reveled in like the great hitters of yesteryear. Songs have literally been written about him. On paper, his 32 consecutive knockouts look legendary—only Don Steele and Billy Fox reeled off longer KO streaks to open their careers. It's so destructive, he left former WBO heavyweight champion Siarhei Liakhovich convulsing helplessly on the canvas in less than two minutes.

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After his first-round knockout of Malik Scott, The Bronze Bomber told Showtime's Jim Gray that his KO prowess was something you just can't buy. "Pure Alabama power," he called it. 

But too often in this business are boxers applauded for their record's raw numbers and not the level of opposition it's made up of. Ahead of his title fight with Stiverne, you'd be hard-pressed to find a preview that didn't give Wilder the edge in power—this despite never cracking a chin as proven as Chris Arreola's. 

Behind a bolting jab, Wilder proved himself more than a one-dimensional puncher, completely outboxing the defending champion over 12 rounds. He shook "B-Ware" multiple times. But for the first time, the KO win evaded him.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that. Stiverne is a bruising man whose only "knockout" loss in 27 fights was an extremely premature referee stoppage to Demetrice King in 2007.

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Still, Wilder, being the future of the heavyweight division and all, was supposed to display the same kind of freaky power on the world-class level that his incredible KO streak would suggest. He didn't. 

Per BoxingScene.com, Wilder did injure his right hand sometime in the fourth or fifth round. This surely took away a bit of the pop to his punches, but Wilder's best round still came after that in the seventh stanza. 

And while the injury reduced his power, it still doesn't explain Wilder's complete abstain from attacking his opponent's body. 

Punch Selection

With 1:45 to go in Round 7, Wilder ended the same one-two combination he threw all night with a blistering right cross that crashed into the jaw of Stiverne. The Haitian-born champion was visibly shaken up. As he stumbled backwards toward the ropes, Wilder chased him down for the kill.

The Alabama native emptied out a punishing assault, drumming his opponent's head repeatedly with wide-curled punches. He dealt out such a punishment, every judge scored the round 10-8 in his favor in spite of there being no knockdowns. 

The rampage and violence was spectacular. The punch selection was not.

Not once did Wilder send a punch or two to Stiverne's body when he had him hurt. It was headhunting at its worst.

The same thing happened in Round 2, when he pelted the sides of his opponent's skull with reckless hooks after rocking B-Ware with a another left-right combo before being tackled to the ground to end the period.

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Wilder fired off 420 jabs, according to CompuBox, landing an impressive 120 of them. His opponent showed no urgency, only managing to land 110 of his 327 total punches.

The body attack on Wilder's side, though, was nonexistent. There's no excuse for not sending more than a handful of those 400 jabs downstairs to force Stiverne to lower his hands, opening up a more lethal target above.

The same audacious headhunting approach Wilder used to wipe out the palookas he did for the first 32 fights of his career won't last long at this level. The idea of a "world champion" completely avoiding the body, like he did last weekend, is embarrassing. 

He rattled Stiverne on numerous occasions. Paying attention to the body would have opened up countless more opportunities to close the curtains for good. 

It's not like Stiverne hadn't been outboxed before.

Stiverne Was Just as Unproven

The general narrative surrounding Wilder-Stiverne was simple.

Defeating a world champion like Stiverne would prove Wilder's legitimacy. 

It doesn't. 

When Wilder did win, that supposedly "answered all the questions."

It didn't.

Stiverne is a plodding power-puncher with nearly as weak of a resume as Wilder. In the three years before fighting last Saturday, he faced but two men—Willie Herring, a nobody with a record of 13-10-3, and the limited Arreola, who hadn't squared off with a relevant soul since 2010, dropping a majority decision to Tomasz Adamek.

And what about his bout before that? It was a complete schooling at the hands of 40-year-old Ray Austin before pulling off a huge comeback with a one-punch knockout in Round 10.

That's the same Ray Austin that Klitschko literally beat with one hand. Here's the video of it.

Stiverne's championship claim is a byproduct of a fallen division. Beating Arreola, who the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board didn't even rate as a top-10 heavyweight for either of their fights, hardly makes for a real champion.

Wilder's victory over Stiverne—as overrated as it turned out to be—is but a small step to securing his place among the sport's elite. And it's an even tinier of a stride when it comes to convincing everyone he's ready for one of the most successful heavyweights ever in Klitschko.

Wilder and his headhunting, untested ways have a lot to prove and a lot of questions to answer by the end of 2015.