Bermane Stiverne says the defense of his World Boxing Council heavyweight title against undefeated Deontay Wilder will show the boxing world he is serious about winning championship belts.
"I ain't a cab driver. I ain't a one hit wonder," Canada's Stiverne said at a news conference Thursday ahead of their 12-round world title fight Saturday at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
"This is the real deal. This belt here ain't going nowhere. It's staying right here in this green hotel."
The 36-year-old Stiverne, who was born in Haiti but grew up in Montreal, traded verbal jabs with the unbeaten Wilder at the David Copperfield Theater inside the hotel's main casino.
"You better shut up. The champ is talking. You had your time. I'm gonna whoop you boy," said Stiverne who is 24-1-1 with 21 knockouts.
Challenger Wilder described Stiverne as "a tourist" with the belt.
"Everyone has been talking for you, but they can't fight for you. You don't understand what is coming," Wilder, an American, said.
"This is my time. This is my purpose. I have never been so ready to whoop a man in my life. This is real. I don't play.
"I ain't scared to talk. I'm going to back it up. I'm ready. Watch me pass my test. I promise you I will do it."
The hard-punching Stiverne won the vacant title with a sixth-round technical knockout of Chris Arreola on May 10, seizing the belt vacated by Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko when he stepped away from the ring in December of 2013.
Stiverne knocked Arreola down twice in the sixth before the referee stopped the contest in the first heavyweight world title fight on US soil since 2009.
Twenty-one of Stiverne's 24 victories have come inside the distance.
Wilder, seven years Stiverne's junior, is unbeaten in 32 fights, all won by knockout or technical knockout.
With a win he can become the first American-born fighter to win a heavyweight world title since Shannon Briggs briefly held the lightly regarded World Boxing Organization title in November 2006.
Wilder said he is going to surprise the champion.
"I need to let this beast inside of me out. I am so ready for this fight," Wilder said.
"He has never faced someone with my athletic skills. My athleticism alone is going to hurt him."
Source: AFP