SONAHR: QUEBEC CITY, Canada – April 5, 2015 – In the light-heavyweight division, only one fight matters. And it isn?t the Adonis Stevenson-Sakio Bika WBC championship bout that occurred in Quebec City, capital of the Canadian province of Quebec, yesterday. However, Stevenson?s unanimous ?decision victory in that contest helped to clear the way for the match that really does matter: a title-unification showdown with IBF/WBO/ WBA ?super? (don?t ask) champion Sergey Kovalev. Such a battle would be the biggest light-heavyweight unification match since Michael Spinks outpointed Dwight Muhammad Qawi over 15 rounds back in 1983.
Over the past couple of years, Stevenson and Kovalev have established themselves as a two-man elite among the 175-pounders. Kovalev, in particular, embellished his credentials with his domination of the seemingly ageless Bernard Hopkins, and destruction of the ever-dangerous Jean Pascal. Stevenson, by contrast, lost some of from his earlier knockout wins over Chad Dawson, Tavoris Cloud, and Tony Bellew when he struggled to score a decision over Andrzej Fonfara, and appeared to be avoiding a confrontation with Kovalev.
The Bika fight also went the distance, but it was far from a struggle, with the scorecards reading 115-111, 116-110, and 115-110 in favor of Stevenson. The champion?s failure to stop Bika is no disgrace. No one else has accomplished that feat either. However, Stevenson did manage to drop the iron-chinned Cameroonian-by-way-of Australia in the ninth round. Outgunned though he was, Bika never stopped trying, and even managed to land a couple of Hail-Mary right-hand clouts in the 12th round. Stevenson, whose own chin has been questioned, weathered the last-minute storm.
After the fight, Stevenson indicated an eagerness to take on the feared Kovalev. Last year, Stevenson essentially talked himself out of potential matches with Kovalev and Hopkins, and was left on the outside looking in when those two spurned him and fought each other instead. Hopefully, the management teams of Kovalev and Stevenson will be able to come to terms for a match that will be a guaranteed moneymaker in Quebec. Dithering will not do. These two are not in the same category of superstardom as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., who were able to wait five years before finally agreeing to fight. In the case of the two light-heavyweights, it?s a matter of now or never.
Assuming the Kovalev-Stevenson bout does indeed occur, Kovalev would go into it as the favorite. The Russian?s wins over Hopkins and Pascal demonstrate that he possesses a combination of power and skill that would have made him a handful even for such legendary light-heavies as Matthew Saad Muhammad, Bob Foster, and Archie Moore. True, Stevenson has demonstrated that he is more than merely a one-dimensional slugger. Even so, his overall skill set is not as complete as that of Kovalev, which means Kovalev is likely to dismantle him en route to a late-round stoppage or lop-sided decision.
Yet Stevenson was an underdog going into his challenge of Dawson ? and Dawson didn?t make it out of the first round. Hmmm ?
Kovalev was The Ring magazine?s Fighter of the Year for 2014. Stevenson was The Ring?s Fighter of the Year for 2013. A matchup between two successive Fighters of the Year? That?s almost as good as Pacquiao-Mayweather.
