Don King Promotions with 89 year-old Don King returning to boxing with a show that had the WBA’s interim heavyweight champion and No. 1 contender Trevor Bryan stopping former WBC champion Bermane “B. WARE” Stiverne ranked No. 11 in 11 rounds Friday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Even though Stiverne had been stopped in last two bouts without a win since 2015 one wonders how the WBA even had him ranked. This was billed as a vacant title fight even though Anthony “AJ” Joshua is the WBA champion.
King is in his 49th year of promoting. Bryan, 21-0 (15), fighting out of Schenectady, NY, and Stiverne, 25-5-1 (21), a Haitian fighting out of Las Vegas, NV, both came in at a sloppy 267.
By the fifth round Stiverne was out of gas and well behind going into the eleventh and final round. A pair of knockdowns by Bryan forced referee Frank Gentile at 1:26 of the round to wave it off after Stiverne beat the count but was defenseless with Bryan landing punches.