Last saturday we were treated to a pretty decent heavyweight fight. Anyone who paid attention to the pre fight buildup had to be excited for this one, but, like many others I felt this was going to be a one sided beat down or early knockout by Chris Arreola. Stiverne is a very heavy handed fighter but previously I was not very impressed with him. I know he came to the game late but he looked like a sub par fighter against a 40 year old Ray Austin, even though he stopped Austin. So I was not expecting much, however, it was a pretty good scrap. Arreola came out aggressive and Stiverne looked calm and collected in trying to set up counters. I was a bit impressed with how Stiverne opened, with all that pressure he stayed cool. Shockingly he caught Arreola at the end of the 3rd round, it floored Arreola hard and broke his nose.
To his credit, Arreola never stopped trying and even had moments in the latter part of the fight. While Stiverne has certainly improved his game, namely counter punching and being more patient, I am still not sold. I think he will beat some good fighters and it will be fun to watch him do it, but, he showed many weaknesses. I thought his major weakness was his chin, since he was stopped by unheralded Demtrice King. However, I have watched that fight and I disagree with the stoppage, besides, he showed quite a good chin against Arreola. That being said, he has some pretty terrible stamina, but I have always thought that does not matter as long as you can beat up the other guy enough to where he is more tired than you, but still, there really is no excuse. Stiverne was not taking a lot of punishment and not throwing a tremendous amount of punches and he was clearly tired as the fight wore on. He often times drops his hands after punching and backs straight up with his chin exposed.
I do not think he could beat Klitschko, however, he clearly has some very heavy hands which often time enable him to get away with certain things. He does not need to throw many punches per round, because he punches so hard, and he does not really even need to be that active because of his power. But, he needs to work mostly on his conditioning and he has improved tremendously so hopefully that will too. Despite Stivernes somewhat poor conditioning, the man can fight tired. His punches never seemed to get sloppy or even lose their pop, which is impressive. What was even more impressive is that Stiverne could have cruised in rounds 11 and 12, instead, he tried to finish Arreola, and nearly did in the 12th with some vicious body punches.
Stiverne's Pros and Cons
Pros
Very heavy handed puncher
Quick hands
Good chin
Durable, thus far
Can fight when tired
Has a warrior mentality
Calm and collected under pressure
Cons
Suspect stamina
Some defensive flaws
Lack of experience
To his credit, Arreola never stopped trying and even had moments in the latter part of the fight. While Stiverne has certainly improved his game, namely counter punching and being more patient, I am still not sold. I think he will beat some good fighters and it will be fun to watch him do it, but, he showed many weaknesses. I thought his major weakness was his chin, since he was stopped by unheralded Demtrice King. However, I have watched that fight and I disagree with the stoppage, besides, he showed quite a good chin against Arreola. That being said, he has some pretty terrible stamina, but I have always thought that does not matter as long as you can beat up the other guy enough to where he is more tired than you, but still, there really is no excuse. Stiverne was not taking a lot of punishment and not throwing a tremendous amount of punches and he was clearly tired as the fight wore on. He often times drops his hands after punching and backs straight up with his chin exposed.
I do not think he could beat Klitschko, however, he clearly has some very heavy hands which often time enable him to get away with certain things. He does not need to throw many punches per round, because he punches so hard, and he does not really even need to be that active because of his power. But, he needs to work mostly on his conditioning and he has improved tremendously so hopefully that will too. Despite Stivernes somewhat poor conditioning, the man can fight tired. His punches never seemed to get sloppy or even lose their pop, which is impressive. What was even more impressive is that Stiverne could have cruised in rounds 11 and 12, instead, he tried to finish Arreola, and nearly did in the 12th with some vicious body punches.
Stiverne's Pros and Cons
Pros
Very heavy handed puncher
Quick hands
Good chin
Durable, thus far
Can fight when tired
Has a warrior mentality
Calm and collected under pressure
Cons
Suspect stamina
Some defensive flaws
Lack of experience
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