How Adonis Stevenson Became the Odd Man Out in the Light Heavyweight Division

Adonis Stevenson is the lineal and WBC light heavyweight champion, but you’d be forgiven if you consider him Mr. Irrelevant in the division he’s supposed to rule.

While others in his neighborhood are securing significant fights, Stevenson—largely the result of poor business decisions by the fighter and members of his team—finds himself the odd man out with a hard road back.

Bernard Hopkins and Sergey Kovalev are just days away from meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to unify three-fourths of the 175-pound title, while Stevenson floats around rudderless, seemingly without a plan and settling for second-tier (or worse) fights.

Stevenson, 37, will defend his titles, per ESPN.com's Dan Rafael, on Dec. 19 against the obscure Dmitry Sukhotsky (22-2, 16 KO) at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City.

The fight is almost comically bad—given that Stevenson could've had either Hopkins or Kovalev instead—and it serves to emphasize just how far Stevenson is from the top, despite technically being the man at his weight class.

And it feeds the growing perception that Stevenson is the type of fighter who finds his way out of rather than into big, dangerous fights.

Sukhotsky, no disrespect intended, isn’t the type of fighter who should be getting a crack at a world championship, and he isn’t someone Stevenson should be wasting time on, given the presumably limited amount of time left in his career.

USA TODAY Sports

Not everyone is capable of being Hopkins—fighting on a world-class level in the shadow of his 50th birthday—and Stevenson’s late emergence leaves him with limited time to make a mark.

After all, wasn't that what his move to Showtime was all about? Making the most money and having the most impact?

Instead, it's been a year to forget for the Canadian-based Haitian champion.

Stevenson and Kovalev appeared on the same card last November, each winning impressively by knockout in fights designed to lay the groundwork for a unification clash between the two this year.

HBO, Kovalev and his promoters Main Events felt that a deal for the fight was done, but Stevenson instead elected to move on, signing with adviser Al Haymon and getting more money from Showtime to televise his defense against Andrzej Fonfara in May.

The decision led to heated recriminations on all sides, with Kovalev calling Stevenson a “piece of s--t” for backing out, per Reynaldo Sanchez of BoxingScene.com (h/t Bad Left Hook), and Main Events filing a lawsuit against virtually everyone involved on the Showtime side, alleging tortuous interference with a contract.

Stevenson and his team, led by promoter Yvon Michel, vehemently denied that a deal for a Kovalev bout had been reached and that they were well within their rights to jump ship.

At the time, the decision seemed to make sense for Stevenson—at least financially.

You could understand it, even if you didn’t agree with it and felt he was ducking a showdown with the power-punching Kovalev, whom he never really seemed enthusiastic about facing.

Stevenson couched the decision in business terms, making the matter-of-fact case that Showtime was simply offering more money.

But the real reason seemed to be the presence of the potentially more lucrative and less physically threatening Hopkins.

And that’s fine, but that’s where the severe bungling of affairs by Stevenson and his team becomes the story.

And it’s where the logic of his business decision begins to fall apart in a hurry.

Hopkins easily dispatched of Beibut Shumenov in April to unify the IBF with his WBA title, and Stevenson struggled but knocked off Fonfara in May. The stage seemed set for an inevitable unification showdown, but it never got off the ground.

And for that, Hopkins, who signed to face Kovalev over the summer, told Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com that Stevenson and his team are to blame:

"

Whoever is on Stevenson's side or Yvon Michel's, should be kicking a can right now with cement in the can and that will really hurt your toe. That deal should have been set in stone as soon as he walked across the street [to Showtime]. As soon as he walked across the street they should have worked on that. ... They thought I was just going to wait and that I only had one option. They underestimated me. They thought I wasn't going to look at other options.

As it turns out, the other options turned out to be the man, Kovalev, and network, HBO, that Stevenson shunned, in what, at least at the moment, seems to have been a foolish decision that cost him a year of his career.

"

With both Hopkins and Kovalev off the table, speculation immediately turned to former light heavyweight titlist, and fellow big draw in Montreal, Jean Pascal.

A Stevenson-Pascal clash in Montreal would’ve been hugely lucrative for both men—even bigger than Pascal’s recent win over Lucian Bute at the Bell Centre—and it would’ve represented a significant challenge after losing out on Hopkins.

But instead, Stevenson and his fans are left with Sukhotsky, a completely unknown opponent who hasn’t done anything to warrant a fight of this magnitude.

Michel told Rafael that Pascal, who has proven to be a bigger draw than Stevenson in Montreal over the course of his career, was being targeted for early next year after “circumstances” prevented the fight from happening in December.

As is often the case in boxing, those “circumstances” were money, with Pascal reportedly requesting at least 40 percent of the purse and the Stevenson camp refusing to go that high, according to Rafael.

Who knows what will change between now and next year to move Pascal off that number, and we must wonder how much Stevenson is losing out on—in both money and legacy—by facing the unknown Sukhotsky in a fight not likely to generate a ton of public interest.

All that equates to a 2014 that can’t close fast enough for Stevenson.

So how does he become relevant again in the new year?

It all starts with Hopkins.

USA TODAY Sports

The 49-year-old was slightly favored in a recent ESPN.com poll of media to be the first man to solve the murderous-punching Kovalev, and a win would leave him with three-fourths of the light heavyweight crown when he turns a half-century old.

Hopkins is the consummate old pro, and he doesn’t hold grudges when it comes to making money.

Whatever happened between his camp and Stevenson in the past would almost certainly be shuffled to the side to allow for the opportunity to end his career as the 50-year-old undisputed light heavyweight champion.

The question would then become networks.

Showtime Sports executive vice president Stephen Espinoza, while surprised by Hopkins’ decision, remained open to the possibility of working with him again in the future should the opportunity arise, per Bill Emes of BoxingScene.com.

Hopkins vs. Stevenson would certainly be that opportunity, but we haven’t yet seen the full fallout and impact of Golden Boy Promotions’—who promotes Hopkins and in which he is a financial partner—decision to bring Canelo Alvarez to HBO with an exclusive contract.

Espinoza was pretty agitated with Oscar De La Hoya, accusing the former pound-for-pound superstar of subterfuge and dishonesty when it came to his young superstar, per RingTV.com.

We don’t know how deep those wounds run or whether the relationship between the two is so fractured as to be irreparable.

As for Kovalev?

If he wins, he’s not leaving HBO, and you can expect that he won’t be in any sort of rush to pull Stevenson out of a fire that he created for himself by effectively leaving him at the alter.

That leaves Stevenson in a situation where there are no easy answers and even fewer big fights.

If he’s looking for someone to blame, he can probably pick up a cheap mirror someplace.