Light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson will defend his crown against Sakio Bika on April 4, with Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions series making its debut on CBS that night, after events in March on NBC and Spike. The fight was officially announced this week, and will be taking place at Quebec City's Pepsi Coliseum.
Stevenson (25-1, 21 KO) was the 2013 Fighter of the Year, but was unable to secure a true major fight in 2014. He did fight twice, beating Andrzej Fonfara and Dmitry Sukhotsky, with both fights airing on Showtime. Possible collisions with Sergey Kovalev and Bernard Hopkins fell through, with those two instead fighting each other in November, leaving Stevenson without a big-time dance partner.
"I am excited to be the headliner for first PBC event on CBS," Stevenson said. "I know Bika will stop at nothing, so the fight will be spectacular and extremely offensive-minded. I predict that Bika will lose by knockout for the first time in his career."
Bika (32-6-3, 21 KO) is a former super middleweight titleholder and is known to be a rough and tumble brawler who makes for uncomfortable nights for his opponents. He says that moving up in weight should be a good thing for him at this point in his career.
"After all these years fighting at 168 pounds, it was becoming increasingly difficult to make weight and that was a major factor in my defeats," Bika said. "I see no problem making the jump to light heavyweight to face Stevenson and I do not feel I'll be at a disadvantage because the champion made this transition successfully himself less than two years ago against Chad Dawson. I promise you that I will be the new champion on April 4."