Tony Bellew is eager to face newly-crowned WBC light heavyweight king Adonis Stevenson, who shocked boxing with a first round TKO of Chad Dawson last night in Montreal.
Liverpool's Bellew (20-1-1, 12 KO) ostensibly earned a mandatory title shot with a win over Isaac Chilemba on May 25 in London, and says he's got no issue with traveling for his world title shot:
"He's the one I'd have preferred to have faced. He's shocked boxing and it's great what he has done, but it's not going to last long, I'm telling you now. ... I'll go anywhere, I'll go literally to his back yard. It doesn't matter where this fight happens - his back yard, England, Liverpool...it's going to be a fight to watch and I'm so excited by the prospect of facing Adonis Stevenson."
Bellew also figures that he and Stevenson (21-1, 18 KO) will put on a fan-friendly fight:
"Adonis Stevenson is wild and he gives you opportunities. So I don't think he's going to be a long-standing champion - especially if I've got anything to do with it. I'm not going to have to go looking for him, but at the same time he's not going to have to go looking for me. I will be there to meet him, I ain't going to run from nobody."
If the fight goes down, who do you favor? Obviously, Stevenson would be the favorite right now, and a TKO-1 win over an operator as solid as Dawson makes that very understandable. But don't forget that not long ago, Stevenson struggled to put away a very tough Don George. Stevenson won that fight handily and all, but George was able to hang in there and take the shots. (Of course, it also wasn't that long ago that Stevenson knocked Jesus Gonzales somewhere into the neighboring galaxy.)