By Jim Dower: WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (24-1, 20 KOs) has missed out on several big fights this year in Sergey Kovalev, Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal.
It’s now looking like Stevenson will be settling for a title milking fight against either Gabriel Campillo or Umberto Savigne for his next fight this year, according to Dan Rafael. The little known Savigne is ranked #2 by the WBC, while Campillo is ranked No.9.
Stevenson could have taken a big money fight against #1 WBC Jean Pascal in a fight that would have done really well in Canada, but Stevenson didn’t want to agree to a 50-50 deal, according to Dan Rafael. He wanted a 70-30 purse split with Pascal, which would make sense under normal circumstances if Stevenson were facing an average No.1 contender without much popularity. But with Pascal being a huge name in Canada and a bigger name than Stevenson, it doesn’t make sense for Pascal to agree to a less than 50-50 deal.
Stevenson, who will be turning 37 next month on September 22nd, could have a rematch clause in his contract with Pascal, so if he lost the fight to him, he could face him again.
Stevenson will need to fight Pascal sooner or later anyway, because he’s his mandatory challenger, and he won’t be able to avoid that fight for any length of time.
Even if Stevenson were to lose to Pascal, he has enough talent to go after WBA World light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer to pick up his title. Stevenson wouldn’t have to risk his neck by facing WBO champion Sergey Kovalev or IBF/WBA champ Bernard Hopkins. He could take the easy path against Braehmer and likely pick up an easy belt against him.
Stevenson is coming off of a less than impressive title defense against Andrzej Fonfara from last May. Stevenson won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but he was knocked down by Fonfara and he gassed out pretty badly in the second half of the fight.
With Stevenson choosing not to face Kovalev and Hopkins, he’s taken a lot of flak from boxing fans for that. He’s also missed out on a ton of money by failing to take those fights.
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