Those fans who want to see one fighter universally accepted as THE light-heavyweight champion of the world (and what boxing fan doesn’t want this!) might have reason to feel optimistic over what WBC 175-pound king Adonis Stevenson said today. Speaking on a media call to hype his upcoming July 29 defence against the once-beaten (and possibly very dangerous) Thomas Williams Junior, Stevenson – as picked up by RingTV.com – said yes, he would very much like to face the winner of the big Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward clash set for November.
“Of course I need the winner of that fight,” the southpaw said in response to being questioned would he fight the November 19 winner. “I’m the lineal champion, I need all the titles. I’m the lineal champion and everybody knows [I’m the best]. I need all the titles.”
Kovalev, the unbeaten slugger from Russia who had his hands full last time out against the cute and tricky Isaac Chilemba, holds the WBA/IBF/WBO belts, and if “Krusher” can become the first man to defeat the incredibly skilled Ward, he will no doubt be looked at as THE best in the world at 175, not Stevenson. That way, a fight between the two, for pretty much all the marbles, would be enormous – as would a Stevenson-Ward unification fight.
On the subject of who wins in November and who he would be facing should he actually back up his words (and, sad to say, Stevenson has picked up his share of critics over the months, what with his seemingly avoiding the marquee fights) Stevenson, 27-1(22) would not say. He is, like the rest of us, waiting to see what happens when Ward takes his “tune-up” against the little-known Alexander Brand on August 6.
“First of all, we will see if they will fight and if it’s true or not,” Stevenson said. “If the fight’s going to happen – we don’t know that. Andre Ward has a fight on August 6 so we’ll see after that. So for now I can’t predict nothing because it’s not for real.”
It would of course be a massive upset if Brand, 25-1(19) defeated Ward, the man many people look at as the top pound-for-pounder in the world today. Such a result would also ruin, potentially, one massive light-heavyweight showdown. For whether it were Stevenson-Kovalev or Stevenson-Ward, fight fans would be happy to pay to tune in.