Stevenson's Promoter Reacts To Pascal Adviser Attacks

By Rick Reeno

For several months, Canadian rivals Adonis Stevenson and Jean Pascal have been trading verbal shots . Pascal (29-2-1, 17KOs) is the mandatory challenger to the WBC light heavyweight crown, which is currently around the waist of Stevenson (24-1, 20KOs).

Both of the boxers are scheduled to return this month, headlining separate events. Pascal is back first, as he faces Roberto Feliciano Bolonti on December 6th at the Bell Centre in Montreal. 

Stevenson returns to the ring on December 19th, when he defends his title against Dmitry Sukhotsky at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec.

Yvon Michel - who promotes Stevenson and used to promote Pascal - set aside an April date for the mandatory showdown. Pascal is currently under a three fight co-promotional deal between his own company - Jean Pascal Promotions—and InterBox.

For the better part of last year, HBO was building a unification between Stevenson and WBO champion Sergey Kovalev. That fight fell apart after Stevenson jumped ship to rival network Showtime to pursue WBA/IBF champion Bernard Hopkins. 

Negotiations dragged on and Hopkins jumped over to HBO to fight Kovalev, who won a twelve round unanimous decision over Hopkins last month.

The news was confirmed on Monday, that a deal is in place for Pascal - should he win on Saturday night - to challenge Kovalev for the WBA/IBF/WBO world titles on March 14th in Canada.

" The last time I was on your site I crucified him . That was the 'Passion of the Stevenson,'" Greg Leon, CEO of Jean Pascal Promotions, told BoxingScene.com. "Adonis clearly has missed Kovalev, Hopkins and Pascal in 2014. Now that it appears that Pascal is going to fight Kovalev on March 14th, hopefully Adonis does not avoid Artur Beterbiev—a guy with five fights —the way he avoided Kovalev, Hopkins and Pascal.

"[Stevenson and Beterbiev] both have the same promoter. They don't have the same trainer, unlike Pascal, Beterbiev and [Eleider] Alvarez. It seems like a natural to me. If Pascal and Kovalev comes to fruition, Adonis rectifies himself by giving the Quebec fans what they want—which is him vs. Beterbiev."

"Adonis Stevenson loves to say, that [his late trainer] Emanuel Steward told him 'knockouts sell.' He forget to finish the sentence and tell him - p*ssies don't [sell]," Leon states. "There wasn't a period [after Steward's statement], there was a comma. Adonis Stevenson should strip off those Kronk colors...they don't belong on him...he doesn't fight the best available challenge. His actions have shown that.

"I'm going to send a letter to the Ring Magazine for Adonis Stevenson to be stripped of that title. He doesn't deserver it. Pascal fought Hopkins twice, he's ready to fight Kovalev. Kovalev fought Hopkins and now he's ready to fight Pascal. Who's the only guy missing? The Ring Magazine champion? He should be stripped for [being a] coward."

Michel reached out to BoxingScene.com to respond to Leon's comments, which were made over the last few days, and other topics related to their fighters.

BoxingScene.com: Reaction To Leon's Comments.

Michel: I used to like Greg Leon. He was intelligent, a soft spoken person who's been in the boxing business for a long time. But I am very disappointed with the pissing contest that he's doing now and the bashing that he's doing on Adonis - especially what was a really disrespectful, low, really cheap...when he made references on Adonis' past.

It's different when two fighters are trash talking to each other. We keep telling the fighters that they are the best in the world, so at some point they start to believe their own hype and they have their egos, but at some point they will settle it with their fists in the ring. But for him to bash Adonis like that, he doesn't deserve to be a boxing person who works for the better of our sport.

Even Jean Pascal who had a lot of trash talk with Adonis over the last few months, never went that low. An example that I'm giving you, with Bob Arum, is that he probably doesn't like Floyd Mayweather but you've never seen him say anything about Mayweather's past when he's talking about him or a fight with Pacquiao. And I'm sure the people at InterBox, who I know are very respectful people, were not happy to read such comments from their so-called partner.

BoxingScene.com: Reaction To Leon's Criticisms of Stevenson's Record.

Michel: He's talking that Adonis has fought nobody. The same disrespect that he has for Adonis, he has the same for Cloud, Dawson, Bellew and everyone else who Adonis has fought. It also shows his maturity, because why do you need to diminish everything that Adonis has done. No matter what he is saying, Adonis was named the Fight of The Year in 2013. And it was for a reason, people that elected him felt he had a great year and a great run.

It doesn't matter how many times Greg Leon repeats over and over that Adonis ducked Pascal, ducked Hopkins, ducked Kovalev - he didn't duck anybody. He made a business decision trying to fight Hopkins, who said Adonis had to come to Showtime [for the fight to happen]. It didn't work out and Hopkins chose to fight Kovalev.

BoxingScene.com: Response To His Side Demanding a 70-30 Split of The Money.

Michel: When he said the negotiations went wrong. That he was talking 50-50 and we were saying 70-30 - we never entered into negotiations. We already requested Adonis' last optional, it was granted by the WBC. We have a date with Showtime. Since the first time he called me to talk about the Pascal fight, I told him 'no problem, it will happen next year.' The mandatory was due by early 2015 and we never had any negotiations or discussions with him after that. He just wants to try to throw sand in people's eyes and tries to create that picture that Adonis is ducking people.

BoxingScene.com: Response To Leon's Call For Stevenson vs. Beterbiev

Michel: He tries to push Beterbiev and make people now think that Stevenson might duck Beterbiev - they do that because they are so afraid that Beterbiev's name might come into their ground at some point, so they are making sure to push him away as far as possible to make sure that nobody will ever name Pascal and Beterbiev together. We don't need Greg Leon to decide who will fight Beterbiev and how his career will be led.

BoxingScene.com: Plans For For Stevenson in 2015.

Michel: When you are a promoter, you realize boxing is a marathon and not a sprint. We also know that the longer you stay champion, the more opportunities come up down the road. It was disappointing to Adonis in 2014, but Fonfara is a good opponent and Sukhotsky is a good opponent too.

If you go back to 2012, nobody knew Adonis Stevenson and nobody knew Sergey Kovalev. When Jean Pascal fought Bernard Hopkins, that was the top of the light heavyweight division. The top was Pascal, Hopkins and Dawson. And now the top is Adonis and Kovalev. For the winner of Kovalev-Pascal - the best fight will be against Adonis Stevenson.

There will always be someone [for Stevenson]. It might be [Juergen] Braehmer, it might be Fonfara in a rematch, it might be Eleider Alvarez who is ranked at number three and undefeated and the WBC silver champion. Shortly, he will be a high profile fighter. There will be someone, somewhere. As long as Adonis holds on to his belt, there will be a great opportunity down the road.

BoxingScene.com: If Pascal Loses To Kovalev, Is He Still in The Mix For Stevenson.

Michel: If I would be Greg Leon - I would say he would be finished, that he would never fight one of my guys. Boxing is not like that. You are as good as your last fight and anybody can be rebuilt. If he gets knocked out early, we'll see. One thing is for sure is that he will lose his mandatory position. If Adonis ever fights him, it will not be because he is obliged too.

Jean Pascal is a very strong fighter and I'm convinced that he's going to give Sergey Kovalev a good fight. No matter what happens, I don't believe it would be the end of Pascal's career.

BoxingScene.com: With Pascal Stepping Away From His Spot, The Situation Regarding The New WBC Mandatory.

Michel: I don't know what the WBC will decide. Number two is Humberto Savigne and number three is Alvarez. I think the best thing is to have these two fight each other and the winner will be the mandatory contender, but the WBC will make a decision at their convention at the end of December.