By Ryan Burton
BoxingScene.com and ATG Radio recently caught up with WBC light heavyweight kingpin Adonis "Superman" Stevenson who returns to the ring on May 19th against former two-division champion Badou Jack. The fight will be televised by Showtime and will take place at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman recently sorted out the the confusion in the division by declaring the March 17th fight between the highly ranked Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Mehdi Amar for the interim title.
Eleider Alvarez will retain his position as the mandatory challenger and will be allowed to have a fight in the interim. According to Sulaiman Stevenson then will have to defend the title back-to-back against the Gvozdyk-Amar winner and Alvarez. Stevenson has held his belt since 2013 and hasn't faced a mandatory challenger since stopping Tony Bellew in November, 2013.
When asked about those potential match ups, Stevenson said that all of his attention is on Badou Jack and getting ready for that fight.
"I am focused on Badou Jack right now. This is the fight I have right now and I am focused on him but the other contenders are very interesting for the future. Right now I am just looking at Badou Jack. I am not going to sleep on him. I won't underestimate him - I will be prepared very well," explained Stevenson.
One fight that has interested Stevenson for quite some time is against former WBA/WBO/IBF champion Andre Ward. Shortly after knocking out Sergey Kovalev in June, Ward announced his retirement.
Ward has since teased on social media that he may return to the ring and possibly as a heavyweight. Prior to his retirement, Ward had told BoxingScene.com that he wasn't so sure that he would face Stevenson, saying that he had done Stevenson's
'heavy lifting' by beating Kovalev twice after years of highly publicized negotiations to match Stevenson and Kovalev never came to fruition.
"For me Andre Ward isn't retired. He is playing a game. He is always playing a game. He is a smart fighter. He is a strategist. He is always strategic. He says he retired but I don't believe it. He is just looking for a good opportunity and when he gets a good opportunity he will jump on it so don't be surprised if he comes back even at a different weight," Stevenson told BoxingScene.com and ATG Radio.
"He don't want to fight me. I know that. Since 168, when I was at 168 I wanted to fight him and he never asked to fight me so I know he doesn't want to fight me since I was at 168. So now he retired but I know he isn't retired, it is just strategic."
2023-10-20 12:28:39
