Boxing Opinion: Can Deontay Wilder Emerge as a Heavyweight Star?

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Each jab came with blunt force, as Bermane Stiverne’s neck bounced back and forth as if on a spring, keeping his head from falling off each time Deontay Wilder connected Saturday night.

Stiverne had no answer for Wilder, getting pounded into relinquishment of the WBC heavyweight title.

Wilder, the 29-year old from Tuscaloosa, Ala., became the first American to win a portion of the heavyweight world title since Shannon Briggs won the WBO trinket in 2006 over Chris Koval.

What Wilder also became was a novelty U.S. fight fans have longed for in nearly a decade and that’s a face in the heavyweight class.

Though considered raw by some, Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) showed ability many didn’t think he possessed in dominating the shorter, stubborn Stiverne, who kept his mouth going with each shot he took at the MGM Grand Arena. Wilder won by unanimous scores of 118-109 (Adalaide Byrd), 119-108 (Jerry Roth) and 120-107 (Craig Metcalfe).

Related » Boxing Gallery: Wilder vs. Stiverne

Can Wilder harness that skill set into something greater -- entering a danger zone many heavyweights fear -- by challenging world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko?

Not now. But with a little more seasoning and polishing against less-daunting opponents, who knows?

“[Klitschko] is definitely a fight I’m interested in,” Wilder said. “I have another plan in a perfect world. If and when Klitschko eliminates my mandatory [Bryant Jennings, who is negotiating to fight Klitschko], I want to defend against Tyson Fury and then end the year with a unification bout against Klitschko. In my perfect world, that’s what I want to happen.”

It would shock the world if Wilder could beat the 38-year old, 6-foot-6 Klitschko, who hasn’t lost in over a decade -- the last time coming at the hands of Lamont Brewster via fifth-round TKO on April 10, 2004.

But Wilder’s emergence could do wonders in stimulating interest in budding American fight fans. Face it, many think boxing goes as the way the heavyweights go -- and there hasn’t been an American heavyweight that’s had fans flocking since future Hall of Famer Evander Holyfield was in his prime.

Also, Klitschko’s dominance makes him boring television, according to some fight fans in the U.S.

It is something that cannot be said about Wilder. He showed an excellent jab against Stiverne in going the distance for the first time in his career. He is a go-for-broke type fighter, as opposed to Klitschko’s sometimes-cautious approach.

Wilder began boxing late, when he was 20. But he’s not a convert, one of those large men who failed in other sports, thinking they could enter the sweet science and attain immediate success. Wilder, to his credit, built a solid amateur base, winning the heavyweight bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics before losing to Italy’s Clemente Russo in the semifinal round.

It’s that foundation that Wilder has built upon, and it’s a talent that is still growing.

Klitschko will be faced with the same unbeatable force that’s downed every all-time great, and that’s age. The champion merits mention on the pantheon with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes and George Foreman (since a shallow heavyweight field shouldn't be held against the Ukrainian). But at 38, still with the same shaky chin he’s managed to sustain all of these years, Dr. Steelhammer’s impregnable veneer -- that telephone poll jab provides a great shield -- could be tested by Wilder a year from now.

Saturday night could be the start of something good for boxing in the U.S., along with the new deals that have been struck putting boxing back on primetime network TV and the renewed talk of a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao megafight.

A bright young American heavyweight with a penchant for taking risks may be the exclamation point.

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.