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It was announced this week that WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson will defend his title against challenger Tommy Karpency on September 11 at Toronto’s Richoh Centre.
This is a big disappointment to fans that were hoping to see “Superman” face WBA/WBO/IBF kingpin Sergey Kovalev, who in late July destroyed yet another opponent.
Obviously, putting together a unification contest of epic proportions would take time to build the pairing through the media in order to maximize financial gain and that will have to wait.
But why Karpency? He’s a good fighter with plenty of experience but he’s not one of the top men in the division and he’s ranked #9 in the WBC, so not even the mandatory challenger.
The answer is probably that this is a “stay busy” bout for Stevenson, hoping to avoid both inactivity and a loss until the Kovalev unification finally materializes.
Let’s take a look at the eight fighters that are rated above Karpency in the WBC rankings: Issac Chilemba, Andrzej Fonfara, Eleider Alvarez, Artur Beterbiev, Jean Pascal, Edwin Rodriguez, Sean Monaghan and Tommy Oosthuizen.
Oosthuizen lost his IBO belt on the scales in June and is probably no longer a light heavyweight, Monaghan might be a world beater but with the padded record he has, who knows if he can really fight?
Rodriguez also has faced a lot of underachievers and was badly outboxed by Andre Ward when he did step up to world class, while Jean Pascal barely made it past an unknown Cuban last month.
Beterbiev is on a rampage of destruction and approaching a title shot after only nine contests, Alvarez has been slowly brewing under the radar, Fonfara is a big spoiler and Chilemba has a hard time getting big fights.
Stevenson hasn’t faced a mandatory challenger since defeating Tony Bellew in 2013, he probably should be fighting number one ranked Chilemba, who he’d probably defeat but it wouldn’t be an easy bout. Stevenson went life and death with Fonfara last year and will avoid the big Pole like the plague from here on out.
The big names on the list for Stevenson are Pascal and Beterbiev as they are both based in Canada, as is Alvarez but the Colombian native doesn’t have the profile yet to get a title shot.
A Stevenson vs. Pascal contest will be huge when it happens but Jean is still recovering from the hammering he received from the unknown but very good Yunieski Gonzalez late last month, plus Pascal stands a good chance at beating Pascal, so that pairing wouldn’t happen until after a Kovalev fight.
That leaves Beterbiev, who last fought in June, but the Russian stands a good chance of dethroning Stevenson, so again, that’s a fight that will happen down the road, if Stevenson is still a viable commodity after facing Kovalev.
So, Tommy Karpency it is for Adonis Stevenson on September 11.
