Stevenson Praises Kovalev, No Interest in Hopkins

By Ryan Burton

BoxingScene.com recently caught up with WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (24-1-1) who is currently in training camp for his December 19th battle against Dmitry Sukhotsky (22-2).

Over the past year Stevenson has been linked with Sergey Kovalev, who recently defeated future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins to add the WBA and IBF titles to go along with his WBO strap. 

Earlier this year, the plan was for Hopkins to face Stevenson in a unification bout but at the last minute Hopkins opted to face Kovalev instead.  Even though he missed out on the mega-fight against Hopkins, Stevenson praised Kovalev for his masterful performance.

"It was a good fight. Kovalev showed that he had good balance and I think that Hopkins wasn't able to do anything to combat the balance that he had. Kovalev boxed him very well and used his length perfectly," Stevenson explained.

As for his plans after the Sukhotsky fight, Stevenson said that he is no longer interested in facing the soon to be 50-year-old Hopkins. He said that at this point in his career he is only interested in adding more titles to his collection.

"I wanted to fight him when he had the titles. It would have been a big match but now I am not looking for that fight. I want to unify the titles and everybody knows that.  That is my goal, to get all the titles," Stevenson told BoxingScene.com.

Stevenson-Sukhotsky will headline a Showtime quadrupleheader live from Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

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