By Sean McDaniel: #2 IBF Adonis Stevenson (18-1, 15 KO’s) may have to do without his trainer Emanuel Steward for his upcoming IBF 168 eliminator bout against the hard hitting Donovan George (23-2-1, 20 KO’s) on October 12th at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The winner of the Stevenson-George fight will become the mandatory challenger for IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch and will likely get a shot at Froch sometime next year if Froch is able to hold onto his title in defenses against Yusaf Mack, Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler.
According to Journalequebec.com, Steward is hospitalized fighting cancer. Stevenson’s promoter Yvon Michel was quoted as saying “He [Steward] is currently hospitalized in the Chicago area and had surgery today [Wednesday]. He will undergo chemotherapy in the future. It happened suddenly. He felt tired recently and thought it was due to the many trips.”
Steward was planning on working the Sergio Martinez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight last Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada but couldn’t make it to the fight due to his medical problems, states Michel.
Stevenson will be turning 35 this Saturday, but his age shouldn’t be big factor against the slow but powerful George. The southpaw Stevenson is still much faster than George and also the harder puncher of the two. George is going to be in trouble if he allows Stevenson to land as often as his last two opponents Dionisio Miranda and Edwin Rodriguez.
George got hit a lot by both guys and was easily beaten by Rodriguez by a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision last March. Against Miranda, George’s heavy hands was too much for him as he took him out in the 6th round last August.
Stevenson has knocked out his last five opponents since being knocked out himself in the 2nd round two years ago by Darnell Boone in 2010. Stevenson is fighting a lot better and is so dangerous because of his speed and huge two-fisted power.