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Cloutier’s Canada Corner
Adonis Stevenson: "Bellew Will
Pay
The Big Price For His Insults"
By Daniel Cloutier
QUÉBEC CITY, Canada - Is it a mind game tactic? Is it to be
nasty? Is it that he needs attention? Is it that he is
worried at just a few hours before the fight? Who knows? For
sure, Tony Bellew put oil on the fire at the few hours of
his first participation to a world championship fight.
The British will fight the Montréal southpaw Adonis
Stevenson, the WBC light heavyweight champion of the world,
Saturday evening in the ring of the Québec City Colisée.
Friday afternoon at the weigh in, at the Château
Bonne-Entente hotel in Québec City, Bellew came close to
provoked a riot.
When the photographers asked to Stevenson (22-1-0) and
Bellew (21-1-0) to be nose to nose for a picture right after
the weigh in, Bellew provoked Stevenson in pushing him.
Stevenson replied, and about 20 body guards and trainers
jumped on the two fighters to avoid a street fight. The
tension was crazy between the two stars of this boxing show.
“Bellew gave me a head-butt and started to push me, said
Stevenson. Clearly, he is extremely nervous. In a few hours
of the moment of the truth, I think he is panicking. I could
see the fear in his eyes.”
About 30 minutes after the incident, Bellew seemed calmer.
“I don't want to talk about this incident, said Bellew, the
mandatory challenger for the WBC 175 pounds world title.
Anyway, more the big moment is closed, more I am sure I will
be the big winner. Stevenson is a strong puncher… and so
what? He is a midget in the light heavyweight division. He
lost by KO against a foil in the super middleweight (168
pounds) division (Darnell Boone in 2010), and now, he dares
to pretend he is the king of the light heavyweight division.
Give me a break! I will give him a boxing lesson Saturday
evening, a lesson he will remember forever. Trust me, I will
return in Great Britain with the statute of new WBC light
heavyweight champion of the world. Stevenson should
appreciate his last hours as champion of the world, because
these glorious moments are almost over for him.”
June 8th at Bell Centre in Montréal, Stevenson dethroned
Chad Dawson (31-3-0) as WBC light heavyweight champion of
the world, in stopping him in 76 seconds. Never before,
Dawson lost a fight so quickly. At the first defense of his
title, September 28th again at Bell Centre, Stevenson became
the first fighter to stop Tavoris Cloud (24-2-0), who have
surrounded at the end of the 7th round, because serious cuts
around his eyes.
In a few hours, Stevenson will become the only fighter on
the planet this year to be involved in three world
championship bouts in a span of six months. In his two world
championship bouts, Stevenson worked a total of… seven
rounds and a third.
“The fight will begin in few hours, and it's absolutely
marvelous, said Stevenson. I am like a tiger in a cage. I
gonna feel so great with the action will start. You will see
what I mean when you hear the first bell. Bellew said that I
am a midget in the light heavyweight division, he said I am
a boxer totally overrated, but believe me, he will pay the
big price for these insults. I will knock him out cold, and
it will happen before the end of the fourth round. I won my
last 12 bouts by KO or TKO, and I will definitively reach
the number 13 Saturday night. Tell me, how Bellew can
pretend seriously I am not deserving to be WBC light
heavyweight champion? Does he knows what I did to Dawson and
Cloud, two of the three biggest names of the 175 pounds
division (with Bernard Hopkins, the IBF champion)? Bellew
has a big mouth for a fighter who has never been involved in
a world championship bout. If he believes he can affect my
concentration or my confidence in insulting me, he is very
naive... more than I thought. I will take care of him
Saturday, watch me!”
Bellew became the mandatory challenger May 25th in London
(the night of the rematch Froch-Kessler), in beating the
South African Isaac Chilemba (21-2-2) by unanimous decision
in a decisive elimination bout. A tall fighter (6'3''),
Bellew has 132 rounds of experience in pro boxing, against
87 for Stevenson. At the weight in, Stevenson posted a
weight of 174.4 pounds, versus 175 for Bellew.
“Adonis is not only extremely strong physically, he his not
only one of the best puncher pound for pound in the world,
he is one of the most determinate fighters I met in my life,
said the trainer Sugar Hill, the nephew of the past Emmanuel
Steward. Adonis is so hungry of achievements. As you know,
before hisdeath, Emmanuel had predicted that Adonis would
become one of the biggest star of the international pro
boxing. Fight after fight, Adonis is proving us how much
Emmanuel was right.”
HBO will televise three fights (all 12 rounds) Saturday
evening in Québec City: Stevenson-Bellew, the WBO light
heavyweight championship of the world opposing the Russian
Sergey Kovalev (22-0-1) and the Ukrenian Ismayl Sillakh
(21-1-0), and the elimination bout between the Montrealer Jo
Jo Dan (31-2-0) and Kevin Bizier (21-0-0), from Québec City.
The winner of the Dan-Bizier's fight will become
automatically second contender of the IBF welterweight
championship of the world. Bizier is NABA and IBF
Inter-Continental champion, Dan is ranked 6th contender by
the WBC and 10th by the IBF.
Just before the match up Dan-Bizier, the young middleweight
David Lemieux (30-2-0), from Montréal, will face the
Colombian Jose Miguel Torres (27-5-0) in a 10 rounds
bout.Lemieux and Torres are both explosive punchers: 28 wins
by KO or TKO for Lemieux, 24 for Torres. Lemieux is
predicting fireworks when the bout will started...
The welterweight Mikael Zewski (21-0-0), from Trois-Rivières,
Québec, the Montréal heavyweight Didier Bence (9-0-0), the
Russian light heavyweight Artur Beterbiev (2-0-0) and the
middleweight Sébastien Bouchard (7-0-0), from Bay
Saint-Paul, Québec, will be involved in the first four
fights on the evening.
Zewski, who should fight soon in a North American
championship, will face Ryan Lee Davis ((24-11-3), from East
Saint-Louis, Illinois; Bence will fight Eric Martel (9-3-0),
from Québec City; Beterbiev, who is associated to the GYM
Group since the spring, will meet the Californian William
Bailey (12-17-0), and Bouchard will have Mohammed Sidi
Slimani (4-1-0), from Belgium, as opponent. The bouts Zewski-Davis
and Bence-Martel are scheduled for eight rounds, the two
others for six.
“Yvon Michel is right when he is mentioning that this event
is the biggest boxing show of the year in Canada, said
Bernard Barré, the scout of the GYM Group. We have two
fantastic world championship bouts, and the fights Bizier-Dan
and Lemieux-Torres could easily be main events in our
regular shows in Montréal. It is the 112th boxing show in
the history of our organization, and its certainly one of
the five most prestigious event of all.”
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