Sports are a "what have you done for me lately?" business. Adonis hasn't done anything in over 3 years now. How he's been able to take on all these lower tier fighter's without having to face the top guys in the division is crazy. I can understand him taking on mandatories/lower level opposition for a year or so, but 3 years? He has no one to blame but himself for his current reputation in the boxing community. Until he takes on Beterbiev, Kovalev or Ward, he's not going to be taken seriously. I actually like him as a fighter but he's held the lineal championship hostage now for way too long. He should be ashamed of himself for what he's done during this reign and I don't know how you can compare Kovalev with him. Sergey's been taking on MUCH better competition during the same timespan as Stevenson's reign as lineal champion. It's not even close at this point.
Adonis hasn't fought anyone close to the caliber of Ward. And Kovalev won that fight IMO. We'll see how the rematch goes, if Ward wins again I'll give him his due. But unlike Adonis, Kovalev is taking these risks. Kovalev has also fought Pascal twice, who is better than anyone on Adonis's resume. So I'm not sure who this good fighter is you're referring to, but I'm not seeing it. What is interesting is that Adonis and Beterbiev are both managed by Haymon, that fight should be easy to make, unless one of the guys doesn't want it.
Black and white? Well it's not that cut and dry exactly Boxed but good point made. They can dis Stevenson all they want. Stevenson is the lineal champion. Ward and Kov are fighting for the right to fight the lineal champion of the division I hope. They can call him the Pimp until he's dead, but make sure that they call him the "Lineal Pimp"! Lol...
Hes food for real fighters Like Sergey KRUSHER Kovalev and Artur beterbiev, And Ward would make stevenson look silly. Glad you think hes good though, he has one weapon. a limited fighter.
I'll agree that a lot of their opponents are of similar quality but Kovalev faced former lineal champ Pascal, unified with Hopkins and fought Ward. Stevenson isnt fighting total bums but hes not challenging himself or facing the best in the division. His string of Dawson to Cloud to Bellew was pretty good but I thought Fonfara was a weak challenger but his performance exceeded expectations. The rest of his opponents havent been much to shout about. Fighting Fonfara again instead of say Smith who KO'd him in 1 round is pretty bad
Mohammadi was Kovalev's manditory for a while, and already took step aside money, Kovalev was in a position where he either had to fight him or drop one of his belts. Fonfara on the other hand was just brutally knocked out in one round, and for some reason Stevenson thought that was cause enough to fight him lol As far as SMWs go, at least Kovalev fought a p4p fighter who hasn't lost since he was 13 in Ward, Stevenson opted out to fight the 100 year old Sakio Bika instead...
Nope and they should have done it in the last fight. Stevenson had been stripped long ago by The RING.
http://www.boxingnews24.com/2017/04...ring-magazine-light-heavyweight-championship/ Says here that they are fighting for their title I dont take the ring mag as anything and just mentioned it because many on here take it as literal
Stevenson also beat Tony Bellew who went up to beat some of the best fighters in the divisions above. Surely one of the most impressive wins of the past decade.