By Jeff Aranow: WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis “Super Man” Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs) announced today that he’ll be defending his WBC title next on July 16 against #9 WBC Thomas Williams Jr. (20-1, 14 KOs) in Quebec, Canada. This choice of opponent probably won’t please boxing fans because they’ve been waiting for Stevenson to start facing the really talented light heavyweights like Sergey Kovalev, Andre Ward, Artur Beterbiev and Eleider Alvarez.
The fans want to see Stevenson face one or all of those fighters, but instead they’ve seen him take a lot of safe fights against guys that arguably don’t belong in the same ring with him like his last opponent Tommy Karpency. Williams, 28, is a slight upgrade over Karpency but not by much.
With the way that Stevenson is being matched, he could hold onto his WBC title for years and years without losing the belt. His biggest threats to him holding onto his WBC title are Ward, Alvarez and Beterbiev. But who knows how long it’ll take before he faces any of them.
A match between Stevenson and Kovalev will likely never happen due to them being on different networks. However, even if they were both with HBO, it’s still doubtful the two of them would face each other. It’s too bad because the winner of that contest would likely become more popular.
This will be another voluntary defense for the 38-year-old Stevenson similar to his last fight against fringe contender Tommy Karpency last September. Stevenson won that fight by a third round knockout. It’s unclear when the last time Stevenson defended against his mandatory challenger because most of the guys that he’s defended his title against since he won it in 2013 have been guys that are very beatable.
#9 WBC Williams Jr. put himself in the picture for the Stevenson fight with his surprise second round knockout over contender Edwin Rodriguez last April on the undercard of the Victor Ortiz vs. Andre Berto II card at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Williams was stopped in the 5th round by Gabriel Campillo in August 2014.
It was too good of an opponent for Williams Jr. at that point in his career. He’s since won his last three fights in beating Michael Gbenga, Umberto Savigne and Edwin Rodriguez. The southpaw Williams still looks very flawed despite his recent wins. If Rodriguez has used some technique instead of fighting in such a wild style, he might have beaten Williams. But there was no way that Rodriguez was going to win that fight with the wide shots that he was throwing at Williams.
Rodriguez made it too easy for Williams to throw straight left hands and right hooks to get him out of there. Rodriguez was a knockout waiting to happen with the style of fighting that he’s been using during his career. It’s surprising that it’s taken this long for him to finally get knocked out.
Since winning the WBC light heavyweight title in 2013 with his 1st round knockout against champion Chad Dawson, Stevenson has successfully defended his title six times in beating the following contenders: Tavoris Cloud, Tony Bellew, Andrzej Fonfara, Dmitry Sukhotsky, Sakio Bika, and Tommy Karpency.
Williams looked bad when he fought Campillo in 2014. Williams started out fast like he always does, but Campillo stayed composed and walked him down to get the victory. Williams never avenged that defeat, and I doubt that he could even if he wanted to. Campillo is too polished for Williams, and I don’t think he’ll ever be able to beat the guys with a lot of technical skills. Williams is more of a slugger, and he definitely will have problems against anyone with technical skills and a little bit of punching power.
“My next fight will be on July 16 against Thomas Williams in the province of Quebec,” said Stevenson on his Twitter.
Stevenson is too fast and too strong for Williams. I cannot see this fight going more than four or five rounds. It’ll depend on Williams. If he goes in there slugging, then this fight will end quickly with him getting blasted out in a few rounds. If Williams plays it safe by boxing on the outside, then it might take Stevenson six rounds; no more than that. Stevenson is the all-around better fighter than Williams is right now.
Once Williams is out of the way, Stevenson will probably be facing Eleider Alvarez in his next fight unless he takes another voluntary defense.