LAS VEGAS — Deontay Wilder went the distance for the first time in his career. And he couldn’t have been happier to do so.

Wilder defeated Bermane Stiverne by a unanimous decision to win the WBC heavyweight title Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Thus, Wilder becomes the first American to hold a major heavyweight title since Shannon Briggs in 2007.

The scores were 118-109, 119-108 and 120-107, all in Wilder’s favor. THE RING had it 116-112 for Wilder.

Wilder (32-1, 32 KOs) won a fight that everyone expected would end in a knockout by outboxing Stiverne (25-1-1, 22 KOs). The Alabamian controlled the fight with a punishing jab and plenty of hard rights, although he never seriously hurt Stiverne. The Haitian-Canadian, the much shorter of the two, simply couldn’t get close enough to Wilder to do significant damage.

Stiverne was making his first defense of the belt. He won the title vacated by Vitali Klitschko by stopping Chris Arreola in the sixth round in May.

A full report will follow shortly.