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Cloutier’s Canada Corner
Stevenson Hopes That Hopkins
Will
Come Back To Montréal To Fight Him
By Daniel Cloutier
MONTRÉAL - Saturday evening at Bell Centre, Adonis Stevenson
spent more energy during his warm up in the dressing room,
than during his fight with Chad Dawson! He got a warm up of
20 minutes… and a fight of 76 seconds!
The southpaw from Montréal caused a real commotion in
beating the respected veteran Chad Dawson by TKO after only
1.16 minute of action. Stevenson (21-1-0) was involved in
the first world championship bout of his career, and Dawson
suffered of the quickest lost of his career.
“Surprise of the result? Not at all,” said Stevenson one
hour after the bout. “I knew I could hurt Dawson with my
power shots. What can I tell you? It's happened on my first
power shot of the evening. During the first seconds of the
bout, I was using my jab, I was hitting him to the body, and
finally, I saw his chin unprotected. I connected him right
away with a solid left hook on the chin…. and he was on the
floor. He was seriously hurt, then, I was not surprised to
see the referee stop the bout. I really think that Chad
would be in danger if I would him again with a power shot.”
The referee Mike Griffin said he has no other choice in
these circumstances. “Chad was clearly hurt,” said Griffin.
He got up, but he was leaned on the ropes, his sight seems
empty, and twice I asked him if he was OK and he never
answered me. In the circumstances, I was obliged to stop the
bout. I could not take the chance that Stevenson would hit
him again in this crucial situation.”
The Dawson's trainer, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, was mad
against Griffin after the bout, but Gary Shaw, the Dawson's
promoter, said that Griffin took the right decision in the
circumstances. “Yes, Mike Griffin took the perfect decision
in stopping the fight at that moment, said Shaw. Chad was
hurt. It would be certainly dangerous to let him continue
the fight in that situation.”
Dawson (31-3-0) refused to meet the media after the bout.
Stevenson, on his side, was happy like a kid at Disneyland.
“It is an incredible moment in my life, said Stevenson. A
dream come true. When Griffin stopped the fight, I got an
explosion of emotions, as you could see. I was crying in the
arms of my trainer (Sugar Hill, the nephew of Emmanuel
Steward). Last January, I promised to my promoter and
trainers to win a major world title this year… and it's
done. My only regret, it is that Emmanuel Steward, who got a
great impact on my career, was not in my corner tonight. But
I know his memory was.” Emmanuel Steward died last year from
a serious decease.
Stevenson hopes to be back in action at fall for the first
defense of his new WBC light heavyweight crown… or a
potential unification championship crowns. “It would be a
thrill to fight Bernard Hopkins in a WBC and IBF unification
titles bout, said Stevenson. Bernard fought twice in the
Province of Québec, he faced Jean Pascal in Québec City and
in Montréal, then, I guess he could come back here to face
me. I am also open to fight big names like Andre Ward and
Carl Froch, but I guess I would need to get back in the
super middleweight division to face them. I was feeling
extremely strong and very comfortable in the light
heavyweight division tonight.”
Yvon Michel, the Stevenson's promoter, said: «Jean Pascal
phoned me this week, to tell me something pretty special. He
told me he got a dream. He dreamed that Adonis would
dethrone Chad Dawson in winning by KO in the first round. It
was a real premonition».
Stevenson got a payday of 900,000 for his first
participation to a world championship. He won in 76 seconds,
then, he as collected 11,842 per second of work. Now that I
am world champion, I guess we will talk of serious money…”,
said Stevenson in laughing.
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