By Luke Furman
If all goes as planned, promoter Yvon Michel of GYM will stage two big events in the coming months in Montreal.
The first event would feature the return of former super middleweight world champion Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs) at the end of April or early May against an opponent who still needs to be undetermined.
Then the other would possibly take place on the 4th of June with WBC champion heavyweight Adonis Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs) as the headliner.
At the moment, Michel has to wait for the Canadiens to be officially ruled out of the playoffs to confirm the exact dates of the two events that would take place at the Bell Centre.
For the return of Stevenson, negotiations have begun with three candidates: Andrzej Fonfara (28-3, 16 KOs), Edwin Rodriguez (28-1, 19 KOs) and Eleider Alvarez (19-0 , 10 KOs).
"It is not yet known whether Rodriguez will be available. He was scheduled for a fight that would have taken place on the 12th of March [with Thomas Williams], which will either be canceled or postponed [to another date]," Michel told The Montreal Journal.
"In terms of Fonfara, his representatives are asking for a lot of money in order to face Adonis, but [that fight] will depend on the financial resources available. If it does not work with Rodriguez and Fonfara, Alvarez is ready for this opportunity."
Stevenson was last in action in September, when he easily knocked out Tommy Karpency. There were serious discussions with WBO/WBA/IBF champion Sergey Kovalev for a summer showdown, but this negotiations fell apart when both sides were unable to agree on the American television rights. The two fighters had a face to face confrontation back in January, when Kovalev traveled to Montreal and knocked out Jean Pascal in a rematch.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
