There was no bump in the road last night for a possible light heavyweight showdown between Sergey Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson. In two fights with a very showcase feel both belt holders took care of business with definitive knockout wins. Kovalev’s came very early and was very destructive. Ismayl Sillakh, a Ukrainian challenger now fighting out of Simi Valley, California was out cold from an overhand right that had him out on his feet.
Two jabs assisted his fall as the referee Marlon Wright was waving it over immediately. Sillakh fell under the bottom rope and the doctors struggled to get him back under the ropes so they could examine his condition. People sitting ringside stuck out hands to prevent him from crawling off the ring and onto the floor. Kovalev had shattered the once promising contender with two solid overhand rights.
If the road to the top in any sport is beset with challenges and hard physical graft, then boxing must rank amongst the toughest. But despite the obstacles to greatness, boxing continues to make people rich and famous, just as surely as it leaves most fighters with questionable futures. In general terms, boxing is the oldest and most maligned sport in the world today, but that doesn’t stop the support, and it certainly doesn’t stop the money. Most eyes used to be on the Heavyweights – the blue ribbon event – but a continued dominance since the Klitschko brothers gained the titles in…erm… 1694, has brought attention to the other weights, culminating in the Mayweather deal; which still beggars belief in most third world countries and gives promoters across the USA cold sweats on dark nights. Floyd is a boxing freak though, a supreme talent, and a fighter like him only comes along once every 25 years. We owe it to ourselves to make the best of the time he’s giving us in the ring. But, like the saying goes “Make hay while the sun shines” and that sun is dipping low on Floyd no matter how hard we want to tell ourselves it’s not true. 
Even though there is exactly one month left in 2013, I think tonight is the right time to give serious consideration to the person who should be recognized as the fighter of the year for 2013. I’ll give you a clue about the person I have in mind for 2013’s Fighter Of The Year – he just knocked out the #1 contender in the light-heavyweight division, Tony Bellew. Tonight’s boxing main event on American premium cable and satellite television network, HBO, [or last night, depending on what time zone in which you viewed the fight] showcased the prime candidate for the 2013 Fighter Of The Year. Poor Tony Bellew didn’t know what hit him. Was it a bird? Was it a plane? 
WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (23-1, 20 KO’s) hammered Tony Bellew (20-2-1, 12 KO’s) at will with power shots en route to stopping him in the 6th round tonight at the Colisee de Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The fight was embarrassingly one-sided from start to finish, and it probably would have been over much sooner if Bellew hadn’t moved as much as he did. 
Trainer Roger Mayweather believes that for Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) to attract a lot of interest in a Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight in the future, he needs to defeat WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s). 
Tony Bellew (20-1-1, 12 KO’s) looks to be headed for a knockout loss tonight against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (22-1, 19 KO’s) in their fight at the Colisee de Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Stevenson has been knocking guys out left and right lately, and it would seem that the tall, upright Bellew would be the perfect opponent for Stevenson to KO tonight to add his 20th knockout to his growing number of knockouts on his resume. 
Photo: Tom Barnes/Hitz Boxing – An electric Black Wednesday crowd got more than their fill of pre-Thanksgiving action during Hitz Boxing’s “Fight Night at the Horseshoe: The Black Wednesday Battle” Wednesday night in Hammond, IN.
The fallout over last weekend’s epic yet controversial Carl Froch-George Groves fight continues. Amid reported death threats aimed at referee Howard Foster – who, as if you didn’t know, halted the fight in the 9th-round, instantly coming under fire from just about everybody, the feeling being that he halted the action prematurely – fans continue to talk about a possible rematch between the two British rivals.
Anthony ‘The Man’ Mundine (45-5, 27 KOs) was in full flight in his six round stoppage victory over future hall of famer ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley (47-9-1, 39 KOs) at the AllPhones Arena in Sydney, Australia last night.