Stevenson not so Super
On Friday night in Canada Adonis Stevenson was fighting yet another underserving & unskilled opponent instead of fighting a deserving challenger like the real champion Sergey Kovalev. From the jump it was easy to see that his opponent, Dmitry Sukhotsky was hesitant and that quality added to Stevenson’s hesitance did not make for a very entertaining fight. The boos from the crowd let Adonis know it for sure so he opened up as time went on and eventually got the overmatched Sukhotsky out of there. This fight did nothing to cement Stevenson as the best in the division and his proposed rematch with Andrzej Fonfara will not help much either. I don’t really like to say that a fighter is ducking certain opponents but in this case Stevenson is basically ducking anyone with a pulse. Considering the fact that he beat a Chad Dawson who was coming off of a knock out loss to a super middleweight and the fact that he has faced no stiff competition since, I cannot really see him as the true Light heavyweight champion. If you can lose your title on the scale you should be able to lose your title by fighting “no hopers” when there are real challenges available too. Luckily the WBC has had enough of his dodging as well and will be forcing him to fight the winner of the Kovalev – Pascal fight at a 50-50 purse. If he doesn’t take that fight then Ring magazine needs to strip him as well.
May 2nd Still up for Grabs
Floyd Mayweather is not backing down from fighting on May 2nd and neither is Canelo Alvarez it seems. Canelo seems to think that fighting in May is a right of Mexicans even though countless non-Mexican fighters have fought on that date for years. If he can’t get Cotto (which it seems he won’t right now) for May 2nd then I have to agree with Floyd and say that he can go fight in Mexico if he wants the date that bad. After all it is a Mexican holiday right. If he does get Cotto (who is not Mexican by the way) then Floyd should back down unless he gets Manny or somebody bigger than Cotto. Either way the biggest fight should go on that date. As far as Arum and Oscar saying Floyd fighting on that day is disrespectful goes, I saw that’s a load of garbage. It was fine when they had their fighters fighting on that day even though they were not of Mexican heritage but now it’s not ok for Floyd to do so for some reason. Their agenda is very transparent at this point and I hope it comes back to bite them in the end. Arum making up excuses for the Floyd – Pacquiao fight not to happen on May 2nd is starting to show and the world can see very clearly that Floyd may be right about Arum being the reason that the biggest fight in the world is not happening. Nonetheless I am sure that this saga will play out for at least another month or so to the detriment of us all.
Khan is too Desperate
Amir Khan is acting like a desperate, jilted lover at this point. His blatant avoidance of Kell Brook while chasing down a Mayweather fight is despicable. He claims he will not fight Brook because he is being disrespectful but he is being disrespectful to Mayweather and is expecting to get the fight. Yeah that make sense. Khan is also stating he can make Floyd more famous by fighting him but Khan is not even a big star himself. He claims he can bring India, Pakistan and all the Muslims if Floyd fights him but he can’t even bring them out for his own fights. If he was that big and famous he wouldn’t need to fight Floyd Mayweather. When does beating Devon Alexander and Collazo make a fighter elite? If that is the case then elite fighter standards have fallen to an all-time low. Try avenging your knock out loss to Danny Garcia or your beat down to Lamont Peterson before you try and fight the best fighter in the world Amir. Better yet just try and fight the best fighter in your country that resides in your division before you try to claim you’re the best fighter. I don’t really care who Khan fights as long as it’s not Mayweather.
A Knockout Waiting to Happen?
Bermane Stiverne and Deontay Wilder are both claiming that they will be going for the knockout in their upcoming January bout and that is good for us fight fans. It’s not hard to fathom a KO happening since they are both heavyweights but at least we know they will be trying to go for it versus just trying to win like Wladamir. I am not ready to make an official pick yet but I think Stiverne might get the KO win due to his good skills and good chin. I also would not be surprised if Wilder KO’s Stiverne either due to his great punching power. If Wilders chin holds up we could have one of the best heavyweight fights in recent times.
Boxing Tidbits and Talk
- Jesus Cuellar fought Ruben Tamayo on Saturday nights Showtime card and Cuellar punished Tamayo to the body until the fight was stopped mercifully in the 5th. That’s 2 good, high visibility wins for Cuellar and he should be getting a step up fight next to see exactly where he is at.
- Gary Russell Jr. got back in the win column on Saturday night as well against an over matched opponent in Christopher Martin. The fight was not great but it did get Gary a win so that is a good thing. As far as Russell saying that he would beat Vasyl Lomachenko 99 out of 100 times goes, I say uh no. Lomachenko would probably KO Russell if they ever fought again and make his life even worse. Russell just doesn’t have enough power to keep Loma off of him or get his respect so I cannot see Russell winning at all.
- Andy Ruiz took on Siarhei Liakhovich in a lack luster tussle that was more resound for how out of shape Ruiz was than anything else. Ruiz came in almost 20 pounds heavier than his last fight and looked tired as the fight wore on. Ruiz may also have suffered a hand injury as well. Ruiz seems to be a very skilled heavyweight but his problems with his weight are definitely holding him back. If he could ever get his weight down he could very well become a force in the division but at this point he doesn’t seem to have the drive to do so.
- Artur Beterbiev was in the process of looking very ordinary in the 1st round versus Jeff Page Jr. when he was put down at the end of the round. As the Twitter universe was in awe of what we were watching Beterbiev was in the process of being woken up and he stormed out in the second round to put a hurtin’ on Page on his way to a knockout. He may have shown some holes in his game but he also showed how he comes back from adversity and that is a valuable asset for him going forward.
That’s all we got for this week but that is by far not all there was to talk about. Make sure that you catch the Boxing Voice weekly radio show live every Thursday and Sunday starting at 7pm (EST) or catch the podcast to get more insight and opinions on the world of boxing.
