By Keith Idec

Adonis Stevenson responded publicly Wednesday to being stripped earlier this week of The Ring magazine’s light heavyweight title.

Stevenson sent out this Tweet on Wednesday afternoon: We all know I’m the WBC and Lineal Light Heavyweight champion. Champions are made in the ring, not a magazine. #TeamSuperman

The 38-year-old Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs) won The Ring and WBC 175-pound championships when he knocked out Chad Dawson in the first round of their June 2013 fight at Bell Centre in Montreal. A representative from The Ring informed the Quebec-based Stevenson and his handlers that he was stripped because he has not fought one its top-five light heavyweight contenders since he won the championship from Dawson (32-4, 18 KOs, 2 NC) nearly 2½ years ago.

The powerful southpaw has successfully defended his WBC and The Ring titles six times since he defeated Dawson. Those six victories came against Tavoris Cloud, Tony Bellew, Andrzej Fonfara, Dmitry Sukhotsky, Sakio Bika and Tommy Karpency.

The Ring’s light heavyweight title is now vacant. Stevenson was moved down to the No. 2 spot in The Ring’s 175-pound rankings, one spot behind the unbeaten man boxing fans and media most want to see Stevenson fight, IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs).

On Tuesday, Yvon Michel, Stevenson’s promoter, expressed disappointment to BoxingScene.com regarding The Ring’s decision to strip Stevenson in this article: https://www.boxingscene.com/adonis-stevensons-promoter-reacts-rings-decision--98547.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.