Bermane Stiverne stops Chris Arreola in six to become unlikely heavyweight champ

Bermane Stiverne stops Chris Arreola in six to become unlikely heavyweight champ

Saturday night, Bermane Stiverne became the first Haitian born heavyweight champion by stopping Chris Arreola from becoming the first Mexican American from doing the same. Arreola got off the canvas twice in the sixth before Jack Reiss had no choice but to call it.

Stiverne’s win gives promoter Don King his first real lifeblood in the division in half a decade. King had a controlling interest of the heavyweight crown up until when Wladimir Klitschko slowly started taking over in 2006. King watched as heavyweights Chris Byrd, John Ruiz, and Lamon Brewster became a rotating cast of champions that shuffled title defenses and never unification. Brewster was the most exciting of the bunch, and one wonders how his heroic defense against Luanda Krasniqi in Germany on Max Schmeling’s 100th birthday would’ve come across on national TV like ESPN, the exposure that Stiverne-Arreola 2 received.

One thing is for certain: Arreola helped make it a dog fight and it took two to tango on that level. Stiverne obliged Arreola on scrapping on the inside, and Arreola was certainly at least giving as good as he got.

Right hands spelled the beginning of the end of Arreola starting in the fifth round. Once hurt, Arreola was a sitting duck for Stiverne who did his job in getting the finish.

There’s no telling where Arreola goes from here, though he vows this isn’t the last we’ve seen of him. Stiverne looks at either a mandatory defense against Deontay Wilder or a unification fight with Klitschko.

Either route is lucrative and there is no telling Stiverne’s staying power at the top.

-Mark Ortega / @markeortega