By Dan Ambrose: WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (26-1, 21 KOs) will be taking it easy for his next fight on September 11th by taking on #9 WBC Tommy Karpency (25-4-1, 14 KOs) in what should be a very easy fight for the 38-year-old Stevenson on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV from the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.
I believe this is Stevenson’s third consecutive voluntary defense. He recently defeated Sakio Bika and Dmitry Sukhotsky, and neither of those fighters was ranked No.1 by the WBC. Karpency is a clear step down from the likes of Bika and Sukhotsky, and those two fighters were seen as poor opponents as well. It kind of gives you an indication of how Stevenson is being matched for his title defenses.
“I’m excited to announce my next fight on September 11 in Toronto against Tommy Karpency. I’m ready to put the hurt on. I work hard and stay focused,” Stevenson said.
Karpency’s claim to fame was beating an injured Chad Dawson last year in a fight in which Dawson suffered a hand injury early in the fight and was forced to fight with one hand in the last half of the fight. Even then, the outcome was close. Karpency stunned Dawson a couple of times, and that helped him get the decision.
It’s not likely that Karpency would have done well against a prime Chad Dawson from eight years ago. Dawson has arguably been on a slide downward since 2009 even though he was still winning until recently. Karpency also fought Nathan Cleverly in 2011 in losing a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision.
Stevenson needs to raise his level of opposition because it looks really bad with him fighting so many overmatched opponents. You can understand why he would be matched against someone like Karpency. It’ll make Stevenson look good in blowing this guy away quickly. It’ll also prevent Stevenson from taking punch punishment because Karpency will get obliterated before he lands anything.
There will be few blows to the head that Stevenson will have to worry about. He won’t be aged from the fight because it’ll be more like a light jog for Stevenson rather than an actual fight. Karpency is a good choice over the other contenders because he’s somewhat known due to his recent win over Chad Dawson and his one-sided loss to Cleverly in the past. Karpency looked horrible in both fights, but at least he was seen by casual boxing fans in America, which is more than you can say for many of the other light heavyweight contenders.
“I beat the same guy Stevenson beat to become world champion. I beat him [Dawson] just over a year after Stevenson beat him,” Karpency bragged. “After that win, I said that the sky was the limit and that I wanted the best in the world. The win [over Dawson] proved that I belong amongst the elite at light heavyweight. Now it is my job to win this fight.”
Karpency is not an elite level fighter. He’s more of a fringe bottom level contender at best. His No.9 ranking by the World Boxing Council is a very generous one given how mediocre he’s looked throughout his career. A better ranking for Karpency would be at No.15, because he’s just very average, and it doesn’t matter that he beat an injured and past his prime Dawson. That’s the only guy of note that Karpency has beaten. If you put him in with someone like Artur Beterbiev, I don’t expect Karpency to make it to the 4th round. It would be an easy fight for Beterbiev.
The co-feature bout is a dreadful one involving 51-year-old heavyweight Donovan “Razor” Ruddock (40-5-1, 30 KOs) facing Dillon “Big Country” Carman (8-2, 7 KOs). It’s hard to know why this fight is the co-feature, because it would be a much better fight for off TV than something that is worth airing live. What boxing fans like to see are potential world champions and contenders in action. In the case of the Ruddock-Carman fight, it’s just a couple of fighters going nowhere and getting a high visible spot on Spike TV with them being put in as the co-feature bout.
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