Wilder wants to take Stiverne’s heavyweight belt

Deontay Wilder admits he has animosity toward Bermane Stiverne, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to hurt him so bad that Stiverne can’t make a future living in boxing.

Stiverne admits he holds no animosity toward Wilder, yet he wants to administer such a bad beating to Wilder that he gives up the sport and goes into acting.

The two arrived at the MGM Grand Tuesday for Saturday’s World Boxing Council heavyweight championship title fight at the Grand Garden with Wilder brashly filling notebooks with quotes and tape recorders with sound bytes and Stiverne quietly and thoughtfully answering questions about their showdown on Showtime.

“Right now, I have so much urge in me to hurt this guy really bad,” Wilder (32-0, 32 knockouts) said of Stiverne, the champion who will be making the first defense of the belt since winning the title last May 10. “But I don’t want to take away his ability to earn a living. This is someone’s son. This is someone’s brother.”

Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) said if he cared a wit about Wilder, perhaps he could grow to hate him. But he doesn’t.

“I don’t have any emotions about him,” Stiverne said. “I don’t think about what he says. Why would I worry? He doesn’t have anything I want. The facts are I’m better than him and I’m the heavyweight champion of the world.”

And while they may not agree to the amount of temperament they share toward each other, Stiverne and Wilder are

on the same page when it comes to predicting the outcome of Saturday’s fight.

“This fight’s definitely not going past four rounds,” said Wilder, who has never gone beyond four rounds in any of his 32 fights. “I can’t see it going beyond that. You’ve got two big punchers who got bad blood between them. Someone’s getting knocked out.”

Stiverne said: “It won’t take long. They’re basing their camp on my last two fights with (Chris) Arreola and the way I fought him. That’s their mistake. This fight will be like night and day.”

Stiverne stopped Arreola in the sixth round to win the title last May. Their first meeting back in April 2013 saw Stiverne win a 12-round unanimous decision. Stiverne said his preparation for Wilder was not about the Tuscaloosa, Ala., native’s record or what he did in his 32 previous fights.

“We didn’t base our camp on (Wilder’s) history,” Stiverne said. “We trained as if he was the best opponent out there and that he has gone 12 rounds.”

Wilder scoffed at the notion he can’t fight beyond four rounds.

“I’m not Butterbean,” he said, referring to Eric Esch, another Alabaman who competed in boxing from 1994 to 2002 and was proclaimed “King of the 4-rounders.” “I can’t help it if I’ve not gone beyond four rounds. I like to get in and get out. Why waste time?

“You want me to stay in the ring and get hit in the head? That ain’t gonna happen. When I get in the ring, I don’t play around. I’m the Bronze Bomber.”

Wilder said he has plans for using his charismatic personality after boxing. He’d like to become an actor and it’s hard to act in movies or on television when you’ve got a damaged brain. He has no intention of letting his boxing career get to that stage.

“Why would you want to allow someone to hit you in the head?” he said. “I don’t get enough credit for my defense, I can maneuver my head and body so I don’t get hit with a clean shot.”

But he’s not above inflicting damage to his opponent. More important, Wilder is intent on winning Stiverne’s belt.

“He’s like the ugly duckling in high school where none of the girls liked him,” Wilder said of Stiverne. “Now he’s got something and everyone knows him and he’s popular. After I’m done with him, he’ll go back to being what he was — a nobody.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.