(Photo credit: Amanda Kwok/SHOWTIME) By Jim Dower: WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (24-1, 20 KOs) made weight on Thursday for his title defense this Friday night against #7 WBC Dmitry Sukhotsky (22-2, 16 KOs) at the Colisee de Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Stevenson, 36, weighed in at 174.5 pounds and looked in excellent shape as usual for his fights.
For his part, the 33-year-old Sukhotskiy, who comes from Russia, weighed 173.5 pounds. This fight promises to be an easier match for Stevenson than his last one against Andrzej Fonfara. Sukhotskiy has suffered losses to the likes of Cornelius White and Jurgen Braehmer during his career, and neither of those fighters are in the same class as Stevenson. Sukhotskiy has won his last four fights since losing a wide 12 round unanimous decision to White in 2012.
Stevenson will likely be facing the winner of the March 14th fight between Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal next if he can get past Sukhotskiy on Friday.
Stevenson was knocked down in his last fight against Fonfara. He’s going to need to be careful against Sukhotskiy because he’s got a little power.
Super middleweight Andre Dirrell (23-1, 16 KOs) weighed in at 167.75 pounds for his 12 round IBF eliminator bout against Derek Edwards (27-3-1, 14 KOs). The winner of the Dirrell-Edwards fight will become the mandatory challenger for IBF champ Carl Froch.
This is Dirrell’s third fight of his comeback. He was out of boxing for a year and half before staging his comeback last August against Vladine Biosse. Dirrell has since beaten Nick Brinson. Both of Dirrell’s wins were by knockouts. Edwards is a big step up for Dirrell in terms of power, and it could be a dangerous fight for him if he gets nailed by one of Edward’s big shots.
Edwards weighed 167 pounds for the fight. He’s coming off a career best win over Badou Jack earlier this year. Edwards caught Jack by surprise and overpowered him in scoring a 1st round knockout. Edwards won’t have the element of surprise on Friday against Dirrell, so he’s going to need to bring his A-game if he wants to catch Dirrell with one of his big shots. Dirrell will be likely fighting off his back foot and he won’t make it easy on Edwards in this fight to land one of his big punches.
Official weights for Saturday’s card:
Adonis Stevenson – 174 ½ Pounds
Dmitry Sukhotskiy – 173 ½ Pounds
Jo Jo Dan – 146 ¾ Pounds
Kevin Bizier – 146 ¾ Pounds
Andre Dirrell – 167 ¾ Pounds
Derek Edwards – 167 Pounds
Artur Beterbiev – 174 ½ Pounds
Jeff Page Jr. – 174 ¼ Pounds
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