De La Hoya: Looking at January for Stiverne-Wilder

A Bermane Stiverne - Deontay Wilder fight has been signed and agreed to by both parties last month. But there are those little pesky details that need to be ironed out. You know, like the date, time, and place. Obviously Oscar also needs to come to an agreement with a network to televise the event as well.

"All of the parties have come to terms, and, now, we're just waiting on Showtime. Most likely, it will be Jan. 17, or the following weekend," said De La Hoya. "But we're just waiting for a confirmation on Showtime. We still have to lock down the venue, so it most likely will be Vegas. But, again, we have to obviously lock that down."

Bob Bennett, the Executive Director of NSAC, also offered his thoughts on the arrangements.

"A request has not been put in for a venue, but let's hope so. I would just say that we, in Las Vegas, would have a great venue. Any place in Las Vegas would be a great venue," said Bennett.

"To have that fight in Las Vegas, we would be honored and we would look forward to regulating that. I'm not sure where the fight is going to be at this time, but we would be privileged to regulate that heavyweight championship fight."

This is pretty rudimentary stuff in this business, and I expect Oscar won't completely blow it and will be able to tie up all these loose ends soon. Fans have been waiting for Deontay Wilder to finally take the training wheels off of his career and take a stiff test, as he likes to often tout his 100% KO ratio, though pretty much all of it consists of mediocre-poor opposition. For me, Malik Scott was still his best win thus far, no matter how dubious the circumstances seemed to be at the time.