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WBC and Ring light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson is eyeing a September 27th ring return at the Bell Center in Montreal, Canada according to promoter Yvon Michel.
Odd Man Out
Stevenson has become the odd man out in the three way tale with Bernard Hopkins and Sergey Kovalev. The 37 year old Canadian signed with Showtime last March upon the advice of power broker Al Haymon with the goal of forging a unification bout with IBF and WBA light heavyweight titlist Bernard Hopkins.
The move spawned a court case last April, when Main Events promotions contended that Stevenson and his camp had already made a “temporary agreement” to fight WBO titleholder Sergey Kovalev before signing with Showtime. But on Monday, that lawsuit has been dropped by Main Events following the contracting of a Hopkins-Kovalev fight in November and now Stevenson is left searching for an opponent.
Five Man Pool
Michel informed ringtv.com that they have narrowed down the list of Stevenson’s next foe to a five man pool. Although Michel did not name all of them, he cited former WBC light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo as one notable prospect.
The 35 year old Campillo had lost three of his last five bouts prior to his August 1st victory over the previously unbeaten Thomas Williams Jr to win the WBO NABO light heavyweight title. However, those three losses have come from top tier boxers Tarvoris Cloud, Andrjez Fonfara and Sergey Kovalev. Against Clooud which was for the IBF belt, Campillo recovered from two first round knockdowns and made an impressive comeback yet lost by a highly controversial split decision to the champion.
Campillo is also one of the opponents which Stevenson asked for after his plan of fighting Kovalev and Hopkins did not materialize.
All Mapped Out
According to Stevenson’s Facebook page, his next three fights have already been “mapped out.” After fighting Campillo on September 27th, the Canadian Superman wants to unify his WBC and Ring belts against the WBA’s “regular” world champion Jurgen Brahmer. The WBA currently has two champions: Brahmer’s regular belt and Bernard Hopkins’ WBA “Super” edition. Stevenson then wants to fight the winner of the November showdown between Hopkins and Kovalev to become undisputed light heavyweight champion.
That third bout is a big possibility, especially if Hopkins wins because Bernard has said in the past that he wants to become undisputed light heavyweight champion before retiring.
If Stevenson can pick up Brahmer’s piece after Hopkins unifies his titles with Kovalev’s, then that undisputed crown is a close reality. After all, the biggest names in this division are Hopkins and Stevenson and it would be poetic if the road to the undisputed light heavyweight championship will end up with the two of them squaring off against each other. Boxing hasn’t seen an undisputed light heavyweight champion since Roy Jones Jr relinquished his titles in 2002 to move to the heavyweight division.
