Haitian-Canadian
Haitian Canadians are Canadian citizens of Haitian descent or Haiti-born people who reside in Canada. As of 2016, more than 86% of Haitian Canadians reside in Quebec.
Haitian Migration to Canada
Immigration 1960-1980
Immigration from Haiti ...
professional boxer
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
heavyweight
Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling.
Boxing Professional
Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...
title from 2014 to 2015. He also challenged twice for world titles in 2017 and 2021.
Amateur career
Stiverne started boxing at the age of 19. As an
amateur
An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
he won a silver medal in the
super heavyweight
Super heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and competitive bodybuilding.
Boxing
In amateur boxing, the super heavyweight division is a weight class division for fighters weighing in excess of 91 kilograms (200 pounds). Introduced for th ...
division at the 2005 National Championships, as well as bronze in the 2003 and 2004 Championships. In international competition he beat
Robert Helenius
Robert Gabriel Helenius (born 2 January 1984) is a Finnish professional boxer. At regional level, he has held multiple heavyweight championships, including the European title twice between 2011 and 2016. As an amateur, he won a silver medal at th ...
(points) and David Price (knockout). His total amateur record was 49 wins and 10 losses. Stiverne commented about his absence from the Olympics: "In a qualifying tournament in Mexico I met a Mexican fighter in the semi-finals and I was robbed. I knocked him down three times but still they gave him the decision and the place in Olympics." That fighter was Mexican-American George Garcia.
Professional career
Early career
Stiverne turned professional under promoter
Don King
Donald King (born August 20, 1931) is an American boxing Promoter (entertainment), promoter, known for his involvement in several historic boxing matchups. He has been a controversial figure, partly due to a manslaughter conviction and civil cas ...
, and knocked out his first twelve opponents with his favoured left hook.
In 2007 he lost by TKO to
Demetrice King
Demetrice King (born January 21, 1985) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2011. He holds a notable win over future world heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne.
Professional career
King made his professional debu ...
. In January 2011, he fought and KOd
Kertson Manswell
Kertson Manswell (born October 28, 1976) also known as The Pride of Tobago, is a heavyweight former professional boxer from Trinidad and Tobago.
Amateur career
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manswell won the silver medal, losing the gold to Can ...
in the 2 round. He won the vacant WBC International, vacant WBC USNBC and vacant WBA Fedelatin heavyweight titles. He fought Ray Austin on June 25, 2011 for the vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title. Stiverne won the fight by a 10-round TKO, becoming the
mandatory challenger In professional boxing and some other combat sports, a mandatory challenger is an opponent whom a champion must either fight or be forced to vacate their title as champion. A mandatory defence is the opposite of a voluntary defence, where the champi ...
for the WBC heavyweight championship, then held by
Vitali Klitschko
Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of KyivWBC ordered their #1 ranked heavyweight Bermane Stiverne, and their #2 ranked heavyweight
Chris Arreola
Cristobal Arreola (born March 5, 1981) is an American professional boxer who has challenged three times for the WBC heavyweight title. He was ranked by BoxRec as the world's No.8 heavyweight at the conclusion of 2007 and as No.7 heavyweight from ...
to fight for the world heavyweight championship, which was vacated by
Vitali Klitschko
Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of KyivGalen Center
The Galen Center is a multipurpose indoor arena and athletic facility owned and operated by the University of Southern California. Located at the southeast corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street in the Exposition Park (Los Angeles), Exp ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. Despite beating Arreola in their previous meeting, Stiverne entered the bout as a +140 underdog, with a number of media outlets predicting an Arreola win. Stiverne won the rematch by a sixth-round technical knockout. Arreola was caught with a right hand early on in the round, and was unable to defend against the increasing volume of Stiverne, which prompted the referee to wave the fight off. Stiverne became the first Haitian-born boxer to win a world heavyweight championship. He was congratulated by notable Haitians on this accomplishment, including by the
President of Haiti
The president of Haiti ( ht, Prezidan peyi Ayiti, french: Président d'Haïti), officially called the president of the Republic of Haiti (french: link=no, Président de la République d'Haïti, ht, link=no, Prezidan Repiblik Ayiti), is the head ...
,
Michel Martelly
Michel Joseph Martelly (; born 12 February 1961) is a Haitian musician and politician who was the President of Haiti from May 2011 until February 2016. He was sanctioned by the Canadian Government for his involvement in human rights violations ...
Stiverne vs. Wilder
Stiverne made his first WBC heavyweight title defense against the 2008
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
bronze medalist
Deontay Wilder
Deontay Leshun Wilder (; born October 22, 1985) is an American professional boxer. He held the WBC heavyweight title from 2015 to 2020, making 10 successful defenses. By winning the title, Wilder became the first American world heavyweight ch ...
. The fight was scheduled for January 17, 2015, and was held at the
Barclays Center
Barclays Center is a multi-purpose list of indoor arenas, indoor arena in the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty o ...
in
New York City, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Stiverne lost the fight by unanimous decision, with scores of 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109. Stiverne landed just 110 punches over the course of the twelve rounds, while Wilder landed 227 punches. Stiverne was hospitalized with dehydration following his title loss, but was released a few days later.
Post title reign
The cancelled Povetkin vs. Stiverne fight
In 2016, the WBC ordered mandatory challenger
Alexander Povetkin
Alexander Vladimirovich "Sasha" Povetkin (russian: Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Пове́ткин; born 2 September 1979) is a Russian former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2021. He held the WBA (Regular) heavyw ...
to fight Stiverne for the interim WBC heavyweight title. On November 11, the WBC were informed that Stiverne had tested positive for the banned substance
methylhexaneamine
Methylhexanamine (also known as methylhexamine, 1,3-dimethylamylamine, 1,3-DMAA, dimethylamylamine, and DMAA; trade names Forthane and Geranamine) is an indirect sympathomimetic drug invented and developed by Eli Lilly and Company and marketed as ...
. Stiverne claimed he ingested a supplement without knowing that it contained the banned substance. The WBC took into account that it was Stiverne's first offence when making its ruling and fined him $75,000. Just 20 hours before the fight was to take place, the WBC withdrew its sanction of the fight stating Povetkin had failed a drug test for
ostarine
Enobosarm, also known as ostarine or MK-2866, is an investigational selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) developed by GTx, Inc. for the treatment of conditions such as muscle wasting and osteoporosis, formerly under development by Merc ...
. Stiverne declined to fight Povetkin.
Stiverne vs. Wilder II
On November 4, 2017, Stiverne again fought Wilder for the WBC world heavyweight title. Before the fight he had remained largely inactive with only two bouts in nearly three years. At the time of the fight he was the only man to go twelve rounds with Wilder. The rematch proved to be disappointing as he was knocked unconscious in the first round. Stats showed that he only threw four punches during the entire fight, none of which connected.
Stiverne vs. Joyce
In 2019, Stiverne faced undefeated British heavyweight contender Joe Joyce (7-0, 7 KOs) on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr. vs.
James DeGale
James Frederick DeGale (born 3 February 1986) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2009 to 2019. He held the IBF super-middleweight title twice between 2015 and 2018, and regionally the European and British super-middleweig ...
on February 23. Joyce was ranked #5 by the WBA at heavyweight. Joyce opened up by throwing power shots and pressing the opponent. Outshaped 40-years-old Stiverne had some successful counterattacks but stayed passive most of the time. The fight was stopped by the referee in the 6th round, Stiverne losing by TKO.
Stiverne vs. Bryan
On January 29, 2021, Stiverne faced WBA regular heavyweight champion and #1 WBA ranked heavyweight Trevor Bryan. Bryan managed to drop Stiverne twice, with the referee stopping the fight shortly after the second knockdown, at the middle of round eleven.
Personal life
Stiverne was born in
Plaine-du-Nord
Plaine-du-Nord ( ht, Plèn dinò) is a commune in the Acul-du-Nord Arrondissement, in the Nord department of Haiti. It has 28,544 inhabitants.
Communal Sections
The commune consists of four communal sections, namely:
* Morne Rouge, rural
* Ba ...
,
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
. He is the youngest of 14 children, having eight sisters and five brothers. In July 2011, he volunteered at the Welcome Hall Mission in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, to offer training and inspiration to local homeless youth. Stiverne is known to be a fan of the
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Southe ...