In this promotional video shot by Showtime, former titlist Bermane Stiverne gives an account of his first fight with Deontay Wilder in January 2015 and what went wrong, causing him to lose his world title. Check out what he had to say on their first meeting:
“This is a fight that everyday is running through my mind and it bothers me. When I was walking in there, it was to win. When I was in there, I kind of felt distracted. I don’t think I lost the fight because he’s better than me, I lost the fight because of health problems.
“This thing about my weight, it finally caught up to me. [I] was 233 a week before the fight, I said it was a little too low so I went up to 245 and then decided to cut it back to like under 240. So I was playing with my weight. You know, I shouldn’t have done that.
“That caused me to be severely dehydrated and it cost me the title. I felt like every time I threw punches they were coming out slow, just like having a fully loaded gun and can’t pull the trigger. Time goes by, time goes by, and I’m losing the round, losing the round, losing the rounds. I saw everything but just couldn’t do what I was supposed to do.
“He hit me a couple times, buzzed me maybe once. I was the only one he wasn’t able to knock out, on my worst day, and that should tell you something. The matter between him and I is very personal, to me at least. Took my title away from me, it’s something I need back. But it’s so much deeper than that. I’ma make him feel my pain.”