By Allan Fox: WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis “Superman” Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs) says he’s going to be looking for a fast knockout on Fridday night against fringe contender Thomas Williams Jr. (20-1, 14 KOs) at the Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
This is Stevenson’s last voluntary defense before he has to take on his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez. Compared to some of the challengers that Stevenson has faced, Williams Jr. is very dangerous. He can punch, he’s a southpaw and he’s young.
The 28-year-old Williams Jr. has got the age advantage over the soon to be 39-year-old Stevenson. This far, Stevenson hasn’t shown any signs of age. However, Stevenson also hasn’t been fighting any of the talented contenders that might expose his age like Artur Beterbiev, Joe Smith Jr., Andre Ward, Vyacheslav Shabranskyy and Sullivan Barrera.
It’s possible that Stevenson can beat all of those fighters, but we’ll never know for sure until he starts fighting them. He’s been facing too many of the weaker contenders like Tommy Karpency, Sakio Bika, and Tavoris Cloud.
”I know Williams hits hard and that he has a name now in the United States, but I keep the same Kronk Gym mentality Emmanuel Steward taught me: we go for the KO. It is also my daughter’s birthday and I want to get her a KO, I am motivated. That will be exciting…don’t blink!” said Stevenson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iep0h2wTO8k
Williams Jr. can punch with either hand. If Stevenson gets caught in a dog fight, he could get knocked out by Williams Jr. Stevenson was stopped in the 2nd round by journeyman Darnell Boone in 2010. Stevenson showed no respect for Boone’s punching power and he paid for it big time by getting dropped by a big right hand.
Stevenson was trying to throw a left uppercut and Boone took advantage of it by hitting him with a straight right hand that put him down. If Stevenson gets careless on Friday night against Williams, we could see another knockout. It’s not likely but it’s definitely possible.
The Stevenson vs. Williams Jr. fight will be televised on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV.
”You don’t know what I have been through to be here. Tweets, talks and predictions won’t mean nothing Friday night…..facts will. There will be a new champion,” said Williams.
Stevenson hasn’t taken full advantage of his three years as the WBC 175lb champion. He’s not been involved in any big well-paying fights against the likes of Sergey Kovalev, Bernard Hopkins or Jean Pascal. All three of those guys wanted to fight him, but they were never able to get him inside the ring. That’s bad for Stevenson because he would have made a lot of money with those fights.
If Williams ends his title as the WBC champion on Friday night, Stevenson will lose bargaining power for a fight against Kovalev. I doubt that Stevenson will ever fight Kovalev, but if he was serious about wanting to do that, he would likely need to take less money if he loses his WBC title to Williams.