Comments Thread For: Hopkins Shakes Head at Adonis Stevenson's Lack of Top Foes

[Rubber Ducky]

I meant BHop was supposed to fight Stevenson and he bailed on that fight. And BHop shouldn’t throw stones at Stevenson because he’s already earned his money. What’s a win over Alvarez, or whoever the mandatory is, going to prove?

Lol bitter much.

He didn't bail he just wasn't going to play Haymon's game. Haymon was trying to delay negotiations and force Bhop to accept the Stevenson fight on his terms or fight his mandatory who was a haymon fighter for peanuts. Haymon thought he had Bhop between a rock or a hard place, unify for less money than he'd like or take even less for a mandatory.

But Hopkins the crafty old fox that he is, decided to say screw it and took on the far riskier Kovalev instead. Sure BHop lost but that move took a ton of balls, Hopkins has shown more heart and desire that Stevenson could ever dream of having.

[TheThirdEye]

Lol bitter much.

He didn't bail he just wasn't going to play Haymon's game. Haymon was trying to delay negotiations and force Bhop to accept the Stevenson fight on his terms or fight his mandatory who was a haymon fighter for peanuts. Haymon thought he had Bhop between a rock or a hard place, unify for less money than he'd like or take even less for a mandatory.

But Hopkins the crafty old fox that he is, decided to say screw it and took on the far riskier Kovalev instead. Sure BHop lost but that move took a ton of balls, Hopkins has shown more heart and desire that Stevenson could ever dream of having.

Yvon Michel: “Adonis Has Never Ducked Anyone!”

By Michael Carbert · On June 1, 2017

But what if the critics are wrong? What if the truth is that Stevenson has in fact pursued matches with the very fighters he is accused of having avoided? According to Stevenson’s promoter, Yvon Michel, this in fact is the case.

“The truth is, Adonis has always been willing to take on anybody,” stated Michel in an exclusive interview with The Fight City. “The fact he has never faced Kovalev, Hopkins or Pascal, it’s not his fault. He has never ducked anyone. In truth, all three of those boxers had the opportunity to fight Adonis, but they made different choices. They decided not to. But to justify themselves they say ‘Stevenson is ducking’ and people believe it, but it’s not true.”

“Let me set the record straight,” continued Michel. “Yes, there was an effort to make a Kovalev vs Stevenson fight [in 2014], but at that time the more established champion was Bernard Hopkins; he had the WBA and IBF titles. And I remember well, there was a meeting with Hopkins and Richard Schaefer and Bernard told Adonis, ‘Come to Showtime and I guarantee we’ll do a unification fight.’ That is the main reason Adonis left HBO to go to Showtime. It was not that Adonis didn’t want to fight Kovalev, but more that he wanted to fight the legend, the real champion, Bernard Hopkins.

“But then Hopkins got into a dispute with Schaefer and Bernard went to HBO and now it was Kovalev who had the chance to fight Hopkins. So after that, Cathy Duva made the move with the WBC to have Kovalev become the mandatory challenger for Adonis in an effort to overcome the dispute between HBO and Showtime and make the match happen. Kovalev defeated Pascal and the WBC ordered the fight but then two days before the purse bid, Duva and Kovalev pulled out of the match because, they said, they were negotiating a contract with HBO so they couldn’t make the commitment.

“So then Pascal, because of his win over Lucian Bute, he was the mandatory challenger and had the opportunity to face Adonis, but he chose to fight Kovalev instead. He believed he would receive more money for a Kovalev match and also I’m sure he believed he had a better chance to win against Kovalev, so he also turned Adonis down. We wanted that fight; it was Pascal who made a different choice, not Adonis. [Ed. note: A fact Stevenson forced Pascal to admit publicly at last month’s “Boxe Mania” press conference.]

“Another example: Joe Smith Jr. knocked out Fonfara and then Hopkins. I called Smith’s promoter, Joe DeGuardia, because I believed Smith vs Stevenson would be a very good fight. But unfortunately we didn’t get along. In his mind, Smith was going to sell out the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island so they wanted to negotiate on that basis. But on our side we were saying, ‘You believe Smith will sell out the place, but we can’t know for sure that’s going to happen.’ So it was a roadblock in terms of negotiating a contract and we just couldn’t come to an agreement. But then Smith’s people and the media said the fight wasn’t happening because Adonis was afraid to fight him, which was not the case at all. So all of these fighters — Kovalev, Hopkins, Pascal, Smith Jr. — they like to say that Adonis avoided them, but it simply isn’t true.

“And now Adonis is fighting Fonfara. Is this the match to take if you just want easy fights? In fact, the first battle with Fonfara is maybe the toughest fight of Stevenson’s career. Yes, Fonfara had a bad night against Smith Jr., but he also knocked out Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Chad Dawson and he beat Nathan Cleverly in one of the toughest fights of recent years. So he’s a legitimate contender and a legitimate threat and I’m expecting a very entertaining battle.

Source: THE FIGHT CITY

[Rubber Ducky]

Yvon Michel: “Adonis Has Never Ducked Anyone!”

By Michael Carbert · On June 1, 2017

But what if the critics are wrong? What if the truth is that Stevenson has in fact pursued matches with the very fighters he is accused of having avoided? According to Stevenson’s promoter, Yvon Michel, this in fact is the case.

“The truth is, Adonis has always been willing to take on anybody,” stated Michel in an exclusive interview with The Fight City. “The fact he has never faced Kovalev, Hopkins or Pascal, it’s not his fault. He has never ducked anyone. In truth, all three of those boxers had the opportunity to fight Adonis, but they made different choices. They decided not to. But to justify themselves they say ‘Stevenson is ducking’ and people believe it, but it’s not true.”

“Let me set the record straight,” continued Michel. “Yes, there was an effort to make a Kovalev vs Stevenson fight [in 2014], but at that time the more established champion was Bernard Hopkins; he had the WBA and IBF titles. And I remember well, there was a meeting with Hopkins and Richard Schaefer and Bernard told Adonis, ‘Come to Showtime and I guarantee we’ll do a unification fight.’ That is the main reason Adonis left HBO to go to Showtime. It was not that Adonis didn’t want to fight Kovalev, but more that he wanted to fight the legend, the real champion, Bernard Hopkins.

“But then Hopkins got into a dispute with Schaefer and Bernard went to HBO and now it was Kovalev who had the chance to fight Hopkins. So after that, Cathy Duva made the move with the WBC to have Kovalev become the mandatory challenger for Adonis in an effort to overcome the dispute between HBO and Showtime and make the match happen. Kovalev defeated Pascal and the WBC ordered the fight but then two days before the purse bid, Duva and Kovalev pulled out of the match because, they said, they were negotiating a contract with HBO so they couldn’t make the commitment.

“So then Pascal, because of his win over Lucian Bute, he was the mandatory challenger and had the opportunity to face Adonis, but he chose to fight Kovalev instead. He believed he would receive more money for a Kovalev match and also I’m sure he believed he had a better chance to win against Kovalev, so he also turned Adonis down. We wanted that fight; it was Pascal who made a different choice, not Adonis. [Ed. note: A fact Stevenson forced Pascal to admit publicly at last month’s “Boxe Mania” press conference.]

“Another example: Joe Smith Jr. knocked out Fonfara and then Hopkins. I called Smith’s promoter, Joe DeGuardia, because I believed Smith vs Stevenson would be a very good fight. But unfortunately we didn’t get along. In his mind, Smith was going to sell out the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island so they wanted to negotiate on that basis. But on our side we were saying, ‘You believe Smith will sell out the place, but we can’t know for sure that’s going to happen.’ So it was a roadblock in terms of negotiating a contract and we just couldn’t come to an agreement. But then Smith’s people and the media said the fight wasn’t happening because Adonis was afraid to fight him, which was not the case at all. So all of these fighters — Kovalev, Hopkins, Pascal, Smith Jr. — they like to say that Adonis avoided them, but it simply isn’t true.

“And now Adonis is fighting Fonfara. Is this the match to take if you just want easy fights? In fact, the first battle with Fonfara is maybe the toughest fight of Stevenson’s career. Yes, Fonfara had a bad night against Smith Jr., but he also knocked out Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Chad Dawson and he beat Nathan Cleverly in one of the toughest fights of recent years. So he’s a legitimate contender and a legitimate threat and I’m expecting a very entertaining battle.

Source: THE FIGHT CITY

Didn't really say that Stevenson was ducking just that Hopkins wasn't cherry picking like people think Stevenson did.

Yes Stevenson had to go to showtime to fight Hopkins as HBO had made it clear they were not interested in that fight happening on HBO. But it doesn't change the fact Stevenson had a chance to fight Kovalev and chose Hopkins instead, which to be fair at the time was understandable but disappointing.

Though when Stevenson did jump ship to Showtime he had not even approached Hopkins about a fight, it had been talked about but no offers had been made, unlike with Kovalev where they had pretty much agreed to fight. So he was leaving HBO and a guaranteed fight with Kovalev to Showtime with nothing other than the possibility of a fight with Hopkins.

Also it doesn't change the fact that Hopkins was getting messed around in the Stevenson negotiations. They dragged it out, changed Hopkins guarantee, changed dates, failed to commit to anything. On the flip side the HBO deal for Kovalev was done very quickly.

Haymon tried to be too smart and force Hopkins to vacate so he could then lower Hopkins purse and get one of his fighters a shot at the vacant belt. Haymon knew no network wanted to air Hopkins vs his mandatory and Hopkins at his age had no time to waste on mandatory fights that brought no money.

[Szef]

lmao i forgot about his ass

New Year, new you huh?

[Shadoww702]

Now that BJS straight schooled Lemiuex, it's official, Stevenson's the WORST champion in boxing.

Not for lack of skill, but because of lack of activity and quality opponents. Dude's the absolute worst and a waste of a right hand bomb.

I used to think Saunders was the worst champ in tough divisions. Now its Adonis and then Saunders. Beating LeSux means jack SHT

[Shadoww702]

What are the chances Stevenson fights Jack and the Alvarez/Gvozdyk winner in succession in 2018?

Zero. Because hes losing to Jack. Being this inactive and fighting nobodies is a double edge sword. Nothing good except still being called champ comes out of it.

[maguirre]

Sadly, Stevenson hasn't done or still not doing anything to rectify the bad rep he brought upon himself. It may be too late for that. He's probably thinking of retiring.

[Sledgeweather17]

Dude you supported Canelo avoiding GGG for two years even though he was his mandatory but now you wana act all high and mighty and act like you care about mandatories?

[ThomasJK]

BE nice to see some real activity from Stevenson this coming year. Age and inactivity is going to catch up with Stevenson if he doesn't step on the throttle soon. And rather quickly too. Time only goes in one direction and it's definitely going against Adonnis at this point in his career. Fighting once a year isn't going to cut it. Looking forward to seeing his upcoming fight with Jack, but would still like to see a fight with his mando Alvarez too. A Kovalev showdown would be cool and if Ward decides to come out of retirement, things could get very interesting.

[Teetotaler]

New Year, new you huh?

Bruh! Its in the siggy. Its not my choice