Is Adonis Stevenson wasting his career?

By Boxing News - 09/16/2014 - Comments

stevenson55By Thomas Cowan: WBC/Ring light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson had a brilliant year in 2013. In fact, he had a strong case to pip Floyd Mayweather to the prestigious Fighter of the Year Crown.

The Haitian-Canadian, nicknamed Superman, avenged his only loss to Darnell Boone inside 6 one-sided rounds and then captured the light heavyweight title by sensationally knocking out Chad Dawson in 76 seconds. He defended his title by dismantling former IBF champion Tavoris Cloud in 7 brutal rounds and then destroyed mandatory challenger Tony Bellew in 6.

On the undercard of the Bellew fight, WBO champion Sergey Kovalev annihilated Ismayl Sillakh to set up a huge unification clash with fellow huge-punching titleholder Stevenson in a fight boxing fans craved. Stevenson agreed a 2-fight deal with HBO to fight fringe contender Andrzej Fonfara and then the big one against Kovalev. However, at the last minute, Stevenson and his new advisor Al Haymon demanded much more money for the Fonfara fight and refused to even discuss a fight with Kovalev. HBO wouldn’t bend to his wishes and Stevenson moved to Showtime to set-up a fall clash with 49-year-old phenomenon and IBF/WBA champion Bernard Hopkins.
Stevenson’s first fight on Showtime saw him dominate Fonfara early on as expected, only to show major stamina issues later on which saw him dropped by the light punching Pole and clinging on for an unimpressive decision. Staggeringly, Stevenson then stalled on negotiations with Hopkins, who needed a unification fight to avoid a low-key mandatory IBF defense. With the deadline looming, Hopkins was forced to make a deal with HBO to fight Kovalev in a surprising turn in events, leaving Stevenson out in the cold.

With the other titleholders unavailable, Stevenson had to cancel his planned September fight due to a lack of possible opponents. In the last few weeks, former light heavyweight champion and fellow Haitian-Canadian Jean Pascal has called Stevenson out for a huge showdown in Montreal. Pascal, the much bigger star in Canada coming off a win in another massive all-Canadian fight against Lucian Bute, insisted on a 50-50 split. When Stevenson rejected this, Pascal offered a 60/40 split as long as the fight took place in 2014. Unfortunately, for some reason the fight still looks unlikely to come off. Stevenson’s next defense looks like it will be against Gabriel Campillo, a former titleholder who was obliterated in 3 rounds by Kovalev, or Umberto Savigne, whose best win is over a shot Jeff Lacy in July.

Although Stevenson only has 25 fights, he is 37 on Monday. He could have 6 years left at the top, but he could also have 6 months. Pascal is a very big fight and it is a fight he would be favoured to win. A victory against Pascal would make Stevenson a much bigger star in Montreal and if he loses, he’s made a huge purse and if he can’t beat Pascal he probably wouldn’t have beaten Kovalev or Hopkins. After blowing two big fights, Stevenson can’t let this pass him by. Even when you’re the top fighter of the division, if you don’t fight, fans interest and your career and slip away very quickly.



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