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Adonis Stevenson has a dangerous fight set for this Saturday in Quebec City against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, but the WBC light heavyweight champion is already kinda looking ahead at 2019, it seems, and the potential for unification fights.
“I am the king of the light heavyweights. I am the lineal champion and how many lineal champions actually are there, any more? I have had that for six years and everyone knows I’ve got it. I am the king. I am open to fight any of the champions, Beterbiev, Alvarez or Bivol, any of them. It’s not a problem for me. Al Haymon can sort that all out. I am nothing to do with negotiating or stuff like that. He is my agent but I am hoping to fight anyone to unify the titles.”
Stevenson (29-1-1, 24 KO) should have his hands full with Gvozdyk (15-0, 12 KO) on Saturday, but he does have home field advantage and is the more experienced professional. It’s a very interesting matchup, which will air live on Showtime before the Wilder-Fury pay-per-view event.
There’s another top name at 175 pounds that Stevenson discussed, and that’s Badou Jack. The two of them went to a draw in Stevenson’s last outing, on May 19.
Stevenson doesn’t sound interested in doing it again:
“I dominated. ... He can out-box people but I out-boxed him and that is hard against a big guy. ... I won more rounds but it was given a draw, so that’s OK and now I am going to the next chapter.”
At 41, Stevenson only has so much time to make these big fights with the likes of Dmitry Bivol, Artur Beterbiev, Eleider Alvarez, etc. And there could be some issues.
Bivol, who just won on HBO this past weekend, will have to figure out where his future lies as far as a broadcast partner. Beterbiev is with DAZN, while Stevenson is with Haymon’s PBC. Alvarez will likely be facing Sergey Kovalev in an ESPN-televised rematch in February, though that hasn’t been made official yet.