Adonis Stevenson says Pascal must work his way to a title shot

By Boxing News - 08/23/2015 - Comments

Image: Adonis Stevenson says Pascal must work his way to a title shotBy Jim Dower: If Canadian #5 WBC Jean Pascal wants a world title shot against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (26-1, 21 KOs) then he’s going to have to work his way to the No.1 mandatory spot, because the soon to be 38-year-old Stevenson says he’s not going to give the 32-year-old Pascal a title shot with one of his voluntary defenses.

Stevenson says that Pascal gave up his No.1 spot recently when he chose to fight IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, and he’s not going to let Pascal get a title shot after he threw away his chance. Further, Stevenson says that he wasn’t given a title shot by one of the champions in a voluntary defense. He had to work his way to the No.1 spot before he was given a title shot.

“He [Pascal] gave up his number one spot, which would have allowed him to face me. I will not give him a chance,” Stevenson said via the journaldemontreal.com. “Let him follow the steps as everyone aspiring to become number one. No one gave me chance to help me get to where I am. I was the number one contender.”

It might take Pascal a year or two to become the WBC mandatory challenger. It not be worth it to focus on that title for Pascal because of the time that he’ll need to put into become the WBC mandatory spot.

In hindsight, Pascal should have taken the fight against Stevenson rather than choosing to face the bigger Sergey Kovalev because he might have stood a better chance of beating Stevenson. We’ve already seen Stevenson get knocked out by journeyman Darnell Boone in the past, and Andrzej Fonfara had Stevenson on the canvas as well. Pascal made a blunder in facing the taller Kovalev, who used his jab to control Pascal from the outside before stopping him in the 8th round of their recent fight.

Stevenson will be defending his title next month in a voluntary defense against No.9 WBC Tommy Karpency (25-4-1, 14 KOs) at the Ricoh Coliseum, in Toronto, Ontario. The fight is considered to be a mismatch in the eyes of a lot of fans of the sport.

The only thing that Karpency has going for him in this fight is the fact that he recently defeated a one-armed Chad Dawson last year. Other than that fight, Karpency hasn’t beaten anyone of note during his career. He would have lost the Dawson fight too if Dawson hadn’t injured his right hand early in the fight. Even with one hand, Dawson still almost beat Karpency.

Stevenson is interested in facing Kovalev, but the fight can’t take place due to them fighting on different networks.

“It is this fight [my priority]. It is still number one contender,” Stevenson said. “Few people are aware in Quebec, but Kovalev and his team dropped the purse to focus on the contract with HBO while there was a tender that could be done for the fight.”

Stevenson is coming off of a 12 round decision win over Sakio Bika last April. It was a one-sided fight with Stevenson easily winning. In Stevenson’s other wins in the last couple of years, he’s beaten Dmitry Sukhotsky, Andrzej Fonfara, Tavoris Cloud, Tony Bellew and Chad Dawson.



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