Ranking the Best Opponents for Adonis Stevenson's Next Fight
It wasn’t quite the thunderous display he promised, but Adonis Stevenson still controlled the majority of the action in an unanimous decision over Sakio Bika on Saturday afternoon at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City. With the decision, Stevenson retained his WBC Light Heavyweight Championship.
It was the fifth successful defense of a title Stevenson won by one-round knockout over Chad Dawson in June 2013. He’d won three of his first four defenses by early stoppages and scored official knockdowns against Bika in rounds six and nine, but nonetheless had to settle for scores of 115-111, 115-110 and 116-110 from the three ringside judges.
Bleacher Report agreed with the verdict though had it a bit wider, scoring it 117-109 for Stevenson.
“I knew Bika was a tough guy and I prepared for 12 rounds,” Stevenson, now 26-1 in a career that began in 2006, told CBS’ Brent Stover in a post-fight interview. “He’s a tough contender, but I’m still here.
“‘Superman’ is in the building.”
Following our typical post-fight custom, we took a look at the next in line for Stevenson and came up with a list of five top options. As always, we encourage you to take a look at our choices and make suggestions of your own in the comments section.
5. Eleider Alvarez
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When it comes to pursuing a match with a champion, you could do worse than being a No. 1 contender.
And though anything beyond the most hardcore fans would be challenged to pick Eleider Alvarez out of a lineup, the 30-year-old Colombian does have that enviable sanctioning body credential to go alongside sharing space with Stevenson while calling Montreal his adopted hometown.
The most recognizable name on his resume is a long-since shopworn Edison Miranda, whom he defeated via unanimous 10-round decision in 2013. Three fights since have yielded defeats of Andrew Gardiner, Alexander Johnson and Ryno Liebenberg. The three entered with a combined record of 41-1.
The Liebenberg win provided Alvarez with the meaningless WBC silver title, whose gaudiness apparently pales in comparison to its diamond title—whose possessor (to be named later) has already been labeled Stevenson’s mandatory challenger in spite of Alvarez’s No. 1 ranking status.
4. Jean Pascal
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If it’s possible for a guy to have raised his value with an eighth-round TKO loss, Jean Pascal did it.
The former two-belt champion at 175 pounds got his crack at the division’s IBF/WBA/WBO belt-holder last month in the form of Sergey Kovalev. Even though it ended in loss No. 3 instead of win No. 30, the reviews of the Haitian-born Canadian’s effort were almost entirely positive.
Yahoo’s Kevin Iole gave the Roy Jones Jr. pupil credit for his resilience.
“Kovalev had the edge throughout most of the fight, and put Pascal down for the first time in his career in the third round, when he knocked him through the ropes,” he wrote. “But Pascal came to fight and, for a stretch, gave as good as he got.”
A match between Stevenson and Pascal was nearly made in 2014 before falling off the map because of persistent disagreements about money, and Pascal passed up a Stevenson opportunity to meet Kovalev.
Loss or no loss, though, a post-Kovalev Pascal match would be a local favorite in Montreal.
3. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
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Former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has come up on a lot of potential opponent lists at 160 and even 168 pounds, so it's no surprise that he’s now a coveted target for 175-pounders, too.
The progeny of a legendary Mexican father, Chavez Jr. will make his official light heavyweight debut with a bout against former Stevenson victim Andrzej Fonfara on April 18 in California. Assuming he emerges with his money-making credentials intact, he’d solidify his spot on the Stevenson radar.
The fact that he, like Stevenson, works with Al Haymon won’t hurt matters going forward.
“Of course I want that fight,” Stevenson told BoxingScene.com. “Chavez is a good boxer and he signed with Al Haymon, which is a good thing. He talks about a Froch fight (at 168), but I know pretty soon he will be at 175. So when that day happens I would love to fight him. It isn’t a problem.”
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2. Artur Beterbiev
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It would have been hard to perform better in a big spot than Artur Beterbiev did Saturday.
Taking a sizable step up in class against former world title-holder Gabriel Campillo, the 30-year-old was dominant—literally—from the opening minute en route to a fourth-round rout that both improved him to 8-0 with eight knockouts and established him as a legitimate light heavyweight commodity.
A straight right hand dropped Campillo less than 60 seconds into the opening round, leaving the veteran Spaniard wobbly and tentative until another right and a cleanup left hook sent him to the floor and prompted a hurried intervention by a nearby corner man in the fourth.
The performance prompted the CBS crew to point out Beibut Shumenov’s ascension to 175-pound title status in 10 fights (ironically, against Campillo) and Michael Moorer’s rise in 12 fights. And to hear ringside analyst Paulie Malignaggi tell it, it wouldn’t be astounding to see Beterbiev trump his predecessors if given the chance.
“He seems ready for a title shot right now,” Malignaggi said.
1. Sergey Kovalev
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A WBC/WBO unification between Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev looked to be a done deal when both men were fighting on HBO, but Stevenson scuttled those plans when he ditched the "Network of Champions" to head to Showtime in pursuit of a larger paycheck with Bernard Hopkins.
Hopkins provided a wrestling-esque swerve when he then jumped from Showtime to HBO to get his own match with Kovalev, which gave the Russian the IBF and WBA titles and left Stevenson to battle criticism that he was ducking the big fights.
Kovalev called him a "piece of s--t" on HBO's air after an appearance early in 2014, but a defiant Stevenson insisted in late December that he'd do whatever it took to get Kovalev in 2015.
The WBC did its part to make it happen by making Kovalev Stevenson’s mandatory challenger, ordering an agreement on terms by April 17. If no agreement is reached, a purse bid hearing will be held.
“I'm going to fight Kovalev. I'm going to beat him. And then it will be another story,” Stevenson told CBSSports.com. “He's got three titles, and that's OK, but in 2015 we're going to take care of business.
"We will be looking forward to that. And when I finish beating Kovalev, then the fans will probably find somebody else. It's always like that. That's the reality and that's why I don't care. I want the fight. And the manager and the promoter will do their jobs, too. I want the fight. I want the fight so bad.”
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