Adonis Stevenson Weighs In Nearly Two Pounds Lighter Than Jack
May 18, 2018 • 5:23 PM ET
By Keith Idec
Adonis Stevenson strode to the scale Friday afternoon and easily made weight in Toronto.
The WBC light heavyweight champion came in at nearly two pounds below the division’s limit of 175 pounds. Quebec’s Stevenson officially weighed 173¼ pounds, just about the same as he weighed before his previous two title defenses.
His opponent Saturday night, Badou Jack, stepped on the Ontario Athletic Commission’s scale exactly at the light heavyweight limit of 175 pounds. That’s the most Jack has weighed for a professional fight, by half-a-pound, since the Swedish-born, Las Vegas-based challenger turned pro in June 2009.
The 40-year-old Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) has been a full-fledged light heavyweight for nearly five years. He made his debut at the light heavyweight limit in June 2013, when he scored a stunning first-round knockout Chad Dawson to win the WBC 175-pound championship at Bell Centre in Montreal.
The 5-feet-11 Stevenson stands about two inches shorter than the 6-feet-1 Jack, however, and Jack expects his size advantage to be a factor in their 12-round title fight at Air Canada Centre.
Jack (22-1-2, 13 KOs) will fight at light heavyweight for a second straight bout after spending most of his career competing at or near the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds.
The 34-year-old contender dominated Wales’ Nathan Cleverly in his last fight on his way to a fifth-round technical knockout victory. Jack won the WBA world light heavyweight title from Cleverly (30-4, 16 KOs) on August 26 in Las Vegas, but quickly gave it up because he was assured by his promoter, Floyd Mayweather Jr., that he would get a shot at Stevenson in his next fight.
Showtime will televise Stevenson-Jack as the main event of a split-site doubleheader set to begin at 10:05 p.m. ET.
The network’s two-bout broadcast will start with WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. (28-1, 17 KOs), of Capitol Heights, Maryland, making a mandatory defense of his title against Joseph Diaz Jr. (26-0, 14 KOs). The Russell-Diaz battle will take place at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
