Comments Thread For: Photos: Stevenson vs. Fonfara, Alvarez vs. Pascal - Final Presser

[AL_Camino]

Damn, Alvarez looks like he walked off the set of a James Bond film. "No, Mr Pascal, I plan to kill you."

lmao definitely has that villain vibe going.

[BigStomps]

sorry I do not talk to your kind.

LOL

Sarcasm is not for you.
It was a way of saying I could not care less for this fight or the undercard.

Guess not. I'm not too much into sarcasm.

[TheCleaner]

Stevenson is disgusting, almost all of these lhw's on the scene have fought each other, and he just continues fighting rank outsiders and now a rematch...

How hard is it for him to have got in the ring with Pascal back when he was another Haitian champ in the same damn city. Bhop. Kov. Beterbiev. Joe Smith Jr ffs, who had beat his next opponent in fonfara.

I hope the guy gets blasted out by fonfara and it frees up that belt! Unlikely but we can only hope. Stevenson is such an arrogant horrible fker, his early misdeeds only confirm the man he is

[SN!PER]

Pascal vs. Stevenson needs to happen

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

Stevenson is disgusting, almost all of these lhw's on the scene have fought each other

This is what I've been saying. Somehow his 3 fans think Stevenson is being ducked and that's what they'll tell you.

[eco1]

Guess not. I'm not too much into sarcasm.

let's leave it there Galen.

[Chrismart]

Now training in Oakland, California, for his second fight under Virgil Hunter, Fonfara took a timeout recently to discuss dealing with setbacks, analyze his first fight with Stevenson and explain why he’s going to walk away with the championship this time around.

How difficult was it, mentally and physically, to deal with being knocked out by Joe Smith Jr. in front of your home crowd in Chicago?

No doubt that was very difficult, but I already knew that feeling because I had lost in a similar way to Derrick Findley [in July 2008].

I was winning against Joe Smith, I had him hurt, but I got a little careless and he landed a very good shot. I just got caught.

Joe Smith was a good lesson for me. I’ve come back stronger, which is what a true champion does. I’ve beaten Chad Dawson since then, and now I’m ready for Stevenson.

Why after losing to Smith did you decide to break from your longtime Chicago-based trainer, Sam Colonna, in favor of Virgil Hunter?

I had a great connection with Sam Colonna. He had trained me for a long time, but it was time for a change, a different source of motivation and a different voice to talk to me. We asked Virgil Hunter if we could work with him and he said yes. This was a good move.

There’s a difference in the way I’m preparing [at Hunter’s gym] in Oakland, California. I’ve been here since September. You will see a difference between me as a fighter now, and me as the fighter you saw when I fought Adonis Stevenson the first time.

How much did it benefit you to spar with Andre Ward in advance of his November victory over Sergey Kovalev and your own win over Chad Dawson in March?

It was very helpful training with him before his fight with Kovalev, but this time we have southpaw sparring partners.

I do see Andre in the gym a little bit. He believes that I will beat Stevenson, and I think he’s going to beat Kovalev even better [in their June rematch].

How important was your win over Dawson?

Well, that was my first fight with Virgil Hunter, and I was trying some new things, so that was a good matchup to try new things out. It was two fighters who really needed that win, and that’s why Chad Dawson was so prepared and ready for me.

I was losing, but this was a very important fight and a good experience for me. Dawson is not so much a heavy puncher, but he knew that this was maybe his last [fight], and he is very slick and very technical. He moved well for six or seven rounds and was ahead on the cards.

I was throwing the heavy punches and I needed a knockout in the 10th (and final) round to win, and I was able to finish him. Again, Chad Dawson fought really well, but I showed that I have character and the perseverance of a champion by coming back and winning the way that I did.

Virgil and I had our first fight together, but now we know each other much better. I’m a warrior and I like to fight inside, but my technical skills are much better right now. I understand Virgil better. For Stevenson, I just need to stick to the game plan and I know I can win the fight.

What do you need to change from your first fight with Stevenson?

The big thing is how much better I’ve gotten, and I want to prove that I’m better, even though I lost to Joe Smith. Virgil told me when I arrived that I’m still a good fighter and that I have all the tools. He didn’t want to change me right away.

But we did slowly adjust some things. Day after day, week after week, we worked on my positioning, my balance and other skills. I showed some of those changes in the Dawson fight, but now that Dawson is behind me, I’ll be even better against Stevenson.

Going back to my first fight with Stevenson, that was my first time on the big stage with a champion like him. I proved that I belong. But for this fight, I can’t get knocked down, and he must get knocked down. I have to stay away from his left hand, which is his most dangerous punch. We have to neutralize it.

With Stevenson being 39 years old and idle since last July, might we see the same type of approach from you as we did in your October 2015 win over Nathan Cleverly that set CompuBox records for punches thrown and landed in a 175-pound fight?

I’m in great shape and Stevenson is a little older, so we’ll see if that’s a factor, but it would be risky to fight the same way that I did against Cleverly because Cleverly is not so much the big puncher as Stevenson.

I could take Cleverly’s punches to the head and trade with him, but I have to be more careful with Stevenson. Stevenson is a very basic fighter, but he does everything well.

I want to hit him and not get hit. I’m fresh off my fight with Chad Dawson and I’m having my second camp right away, and Stevenson hasn’t fight for almost a year. I’ll win whether by decision or knockout.

How do you rank the top fighters in your division?

Andre Ward is No. 1. No. 2 is Adonis Stevenson. No. 3 is Sergey Kovalev. I’m No. 4, and No. 5 is Eleider Alvarez. There are some other good contenders, too, like Artur Beterbiev.

Nathan Cleverly has a title now because he knocked out Juergen Braehmer, so we really have a solid top-15 fighters in the division.

What fighter in history would you most like to have fought, and what would be the result?

The fighter I would want to fight is Bernard Hopkins. I would have liked it even before Joe Smith knocked him out. He was a great fighter and a champion. He’s a big name. I believe that I would win.

I think I would knock him out in the same way that Joe Smith did. It’s good for me that Smith won that fight. If I could get a rematch with Smith one day, then I would like that, too, because he beat a legend in Hopkins.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, what actor would do the best job portraying you?

I recently went and saw the King Arthur movie and I think it’s very good. I think the actor who played King Arthur, Charlie Hunnam, he looks a little like me, so he would be the guy.

Finish this sentence: If not for boxing, I would be …

… a soccer player and a goalkeeper. Before I started my journey into boxing, I played soccer a little bit and I was a goalie. When I have free time between camps, I still play soccer.

If you could have dinner with four people in the history of the world, who would be on your guest list?

The first one I would say is the Polish pope, John Paul II. Then I would say Neil Armstrong because he was the first man to walk on the moon.

The other two guys would be Barack ***** and Bruce Lee. I would want to ask Bruce Lee about his 1-inch punch.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

No war. No terrorism and no war.