After seeing Sergey Kovalev demolish an undeserving Shabranskyy, Dimtry Bivol get the WBA belt handed to him after Badou Jack vacated the belt, and Artur Beterbiev pick up the IBF belt, the lightheavyweight division is starting over again. Andre Ward has retired and all the belts have made it into the hands of other fighters now with Kovalev picking up his WBO title again. Sullivan Barrera also on the Kovalev-Shabranskyy is definitely a name fighter who will be going after one of the titles. But in the midst of all this lightheavyweight mix-up the question is, where is Adonis Stevenson? It seems most of the division is mixing it up and matches are being made with the names and solid contenders, but Stevenson is nowhere to be found on the scene. It’s been six months since his second round blow out of Andrzej Fonfara and there have been really no call outs from him. He stated after the Fonfara fight he would fight anyone or whoever Al Haymon puts in front of him, but we really want specifics now. It’s been four and half years and eight title defenses later and the level of competition hasn’t been getting any better on his record.
Right now since Kovalev is on the comeback trail, and the new titleholders still have to prove worthy so it’s hard not to say Adonis Stevenson is the number one lightheavyweight in the world. But in order to solidify that status, within the next year he has to get his name in there with the lions. Eleider Alvarez has been in line for a titleshot for over a year holding onto the number one contender spot with the WBC, but that fight still has not come to fruition. Stevenson should take this fight to get back into the thick of things against another hungry contender. Personally Alvarez isn’t the strongest of contenders so Stevenson really should have no problem with this fight being made. Oleksandr Gvozdyk is another young top WBC contender who would make for an interesting fight. A tall, young, strong puncher whose sparred with the likes of Sergey, would help cement that resume. But if taking on the young lions isn’t what he’s after the one fight that we still need is Stevenson-Kovalev!
This fight still holds value and can still build the legacy of either fighter because before Andre Ward decided to move up, they were the two kingpins of the division. I personally always favored this fight more than Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev. I felt Stevenson and Kovalev had built a small rivalry and had left a lot of questions about who was the better fighter in the 175 pound division. Both guys have time against them especially Stevenson who is already 40 so why wait now? Like I stated technically Stevenson is the number one guy in the division, but with Sergey having to regain his momentum and Stevenson in need of solidifying his legacy, these two guys need each other now more than ever. So with Ward out of the picture Stevenson can work on regaining a legit claim as “the” guy at 175.