Stevenson-Mohammedi in April To Expedite Kovalev Clash?

By Steve Kim

In the aftermath of his fifth-round stoppage of Dmitry Sukhotsky this past Friday night in Quebec City, there was some talk of Adonis Stevenson, the reigning WBC light heavyweight champion, facing Andrzej Fonfara, who gave 'Superman' all he could handle on May 24th.

But Yvon Michel of GYM, which promotes Stevenson clarified to BoxingScene.com:

"I haven't spoken to anybody about it, I was just asked after the fight - 'who could be a potential opponent for Adonis?' and I mentioned his name because he's a top ranked fighter, he did twelve rrounds with Adonis but I need to sit with Al (Haymon) and Adonis.

"We know Adonis' date is April the 4th but anybody who's ranked, would be available, we'll sit with the team and make the bout."

Stevenson, who was the 2013 Fighter of the Year in many quarters came under heavy criticism after he bypassed a showdown with Sergey Kovalev after signing with the influential Haymon and switching networks from HBO to Showtime. Michel has an idea to rectify that and expedite that process.

"I had mentioned the possibility - if it's legitimate that Sergey Kovalev wants to fight Adonis - after he fights (Jean) Pascal (on March 14th), this is Adonis' goal and what we are hoping for is a clash with Kovalev and my understanding is that Kovalev has to fight Nadjib Mohammedi - his mandatory contender with the IBF. So maybe it would be a good idea for us to fight Mohammedi to speed up the possibility of fighting each other after."

Kovalev is the owner of the IBF, WBA and WBO belts after soundly defeating Bernard Hopkins on November 8th.

"I haven't spoke to Al or Adonis or to the people with Mohemmedi," admitted Michel. "But that would be my recommendation if it's really legitimate that Kovalev really wants to fight Stevenson."

Main Events happens to promote both Kovalev and Mohemmedi, Kathy Duva - perhaps more than a bit skeptical when it comes to anything related to Stevenson based on recent history - stated on Tuesday afternoon:

"Nobody has made an offer to me and there's no point in discussing theoretical fights."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.