By Eric Thomas: A unification bout between WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21 KO’s) and WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (23-1, 20 KO’s) is in the works for the Fall, according to Dan Rafael. Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva feels confident that the Stevenson-Kovalev fight will get made for later this year, as long as both fighters get past their next opponents.
Stevenson will be defending his WBC title against #4 WBC Andrzej Fonfara (25-2, 15 KO’s) on May 24th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Kovalev has a title defense that he’s looking to make against the unbeaten #15 WBO, Cedric Agnew (26-0, 13 KO’s) on March 29th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Neither of these fights are expected to be competitive match-ups due to the lack of power of the two contenders.
“Negotiations are ongoing and I am optimistic,” Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva said to ESPN.
The fight will be televised by HBO if the the two fighters’ promoters are able to successfully put the bout together.
As for #1 WBC Jean Pascal, it looks like he’s going to go in another direction towards other fights. He could probably get a fight with Stevenson if he were interested in that match-up, but Pascal didn’t seem all that eager to face Stevenson anytime soon when he was asked about the fight by HBO following his win over Lucian Bute. Fonfara is Kovalev’s WBO #1 contender, but he’s now going to be taken out of the loop due to him facing Stevenson. The next highest ranked contender is #2 WBO Eleider Alvarez, but he hasn’t looked like anything special recently in beating Andrew Gardiner, Edison Miranda and Nicholson Poulard. Alvarez needs more time to be groomed before he faces Kovalev, because if that fight is made right now, Kovalev would knock Alvarez out.
Stevenson, 36, has 10 consecutive knockouts going since 2011. He’s stopped Tony Bellew, Tavoris Cloud, Chad Dawson, Darnell Boone and Don George in his last four fights. Kovalev is a much different fighter than those guys, and it might be that Stevenson won’t be able to get past him. It’ll all depend on how things go in the first part of the fight. Very few of Kovalev’s opponents make it past the 3rd round.
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