By Marcus Richardson: The International Boxing Federation ordered a 168 pound eliminator bout between Adonis Stevenson and Edwin Rodriguez. However, Rodriguez likely won’t take the fight according to Dan Rafael. Instead of Rodriguez, the 34-year-old Stevenson is going to get someone much further down in the food chain because most of the top 10 contenders are already scheduled with other fights or likely not interested in traveling to Montreal to face Canadian based Stevenson.
Here are the choices for Stevenson to fight:
James DeGale
Kelly Pavlik
Pablo Farias
Thomas Oosthuizen
Glen Johnson
Dyah Davis
Andre Dirrell
Don George
Rowland Bryant
Librado Andrade
You can already rule out Oosthuizen, because his promoter Lou Dibella already nixed that idea of him facing Stevenson.
DeGale, a UK fighter, probably won’t be agreeable to fighting Stevenson in Canada on August 11th, so he’s out.
Kelly Pavlik is still on the comeback trail being matched against 2nd tier opposition, and it’s doubtful that his promoter Bob Arum will agree to that fight.
Andre Dirrell probably won’t want to face a slugger like Stevenson because he’s also taking his time with his own comeback.
Librado Andrade is coming off of a knockout loss to Rowland Bryant.
Dyah Davis has a fight this weekend against Sakio Bika, and he could be a possibility to fight Stevenson.
I think the biggest possibility for Stevenson is Glen Johnson, Davis, Don George or Bryant. Stevenson could struggle against all of them because if you exclude Davis, these guys can punch a little. Davis would be a problem for Stevenson because he’s an excellent boxer and he’d be able to avoid Stevenson’s big pot shots. But Johnson, George and Bryant would have a very real chance of knocking Stevenson out. Bryant, a big puncher like Stevenson, would be a very real threat to taking Stevenson out just like Darnell Boone did in 2010. Stevenson got chopped down by a big right hand from Boone in the 2nd round of that fight, I think Bryant has comparable power to Boone.