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Cloutier’s Canada Corner
Stevenson vs.
Alvarez In Preparation For December
By Daniel Cloutier
QUÉBEC CITY, Canada - The chances that the Québec City and
Montréal boxing fans assist to a WBC world championship bout
between the Montrealers Adonis Stevenson and Eleider Alvarez
before the end of the year, are increasing substantially
now.
Stevenson (28-1-0) kept his WBC 175 pounds world
championship Friday evening in the ring of the Videotron
Centre in Québec City, in front of about 7,000 boxing fans,
in beating the American Thomas Williams Jr (20-2-0) by KO in
less than four rounds of action (a huge gift for the
Stevenson's daughter who was celebrating her birthday
Saturday), and just before this match up, Alvarez (20-0-0),
a Montrealer Colombian ranked first contender by the WBC in
the light heavyweight division, won by unanimous decision
(10 rounds) over Robert Berridge (27-5-1), from Albany, New
Zealand.
For the GYM Group, it’s a total victory. “ The chances are
very strong that Eleider and Adonis gonna fight in a WBC
light heavyweight championship of the world in December, in
Montréal or Québec City, is admitting the Promoter of the
GYM Group, Yvon Michel. I know Eleider is extremely
impatient to be involved in a world championship fight, and
as you know, Adonis is not afraid to face the best fighters
of his division. In the circumstances, we can plan to
organize a match up Stevenson-Alvarez which create a big
interest in the Québec boxing circles.”
Few weeks ago, Yvon Michel was planning to oppose Alvarez to
the former WBC champion of the world, the Montrealer Jean
Pascal (30-4-1), at the fall. And if Alvarez would stay
undefeated against Pascal, he would face Stevenson in April
2017. However, the plans are totally changed now.
Two weeks ago, the promoter-manager Camille Estephan, the
big boss of The Eye Of The Tiger Management Group in
Montréal, bought the InterBox Group, headed by the
businessman Jean Bédard. With this transaction, Estephan add
three fighters to his organization, Pascal, the super
lightweight Yves Ulysse Jr. (10-0-0), from Montréal, and the
super welterweight David Théroux (11-0-0), from Sorel,
Québec.
With Pascal with The Eye Of The Tiger Management Group, it’s
a major problem for Yvon Michel. Yvon Michel refused to talk
to Estephan since a year and a half, since the moment the
middleweight David Lemieux (35-3-0) left the GYM Group to
join The Eye Of The Tiger Management Group. When Lemieux
signed a new contract with Estephan, Yvon Michel got the
conviction he was very close to convince Lemieux to sign a
contract extension with the GYM Group. Then, the people
around Yvon Michel are persuaded that the GYM Group will
forget Pascal and organize right away a fight between
Alvarez and Stevenson.
“If Yvon asked me to face Stevenson in December, I will
certainly do it, said Stevenson. I won’t refuse to fight the
most important names of the light heavyweight division on
the international scene, and Eleider is one of them
actually. No doubt that a fight between Eleider and me would
create a huge interest in the Québec boxing circles. As you
know, I want to stay active and stay WBC light heavyweight
champion of the world, to keep alive my chances to face
Sergey Kovalev in 2017 in an unification world titles bout.”
Kovalev is the actual WBA, WBO and IBF 175 pounds champion
of the world.
If a fight Kovalev-Stevenson seems complicated to organize,
it’s because Kovalev is on contract with HBO and Stevenson
with Showtime. The two networks will need to made a deal to
organize a WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF light heavyweight
championship of the world in 2017.
“Kovalev is a big project for Adonis, we all know it, but he
will need to stay concentrated on Alvarez next fall”, said
Yvon Michel. A mega match up Stevenson-Kovalev won’t be
realizable before 2017. If Adonis stay WBC champion of the
world, and Kovalev is keeping his WBA, WBO and IBF world
titles, I will certainly do everything possible to make a
unification titles bout next year. No doubt a fight
Stevenson-Kovalev would generate a lot of revenues for both
fighters next year.”
And Kovalev (30-0-1) is supposed to face the Californian
Andre Ward (29-0-0) in November in Las Vegas. Ward is
actually one of the two best fighters pound for pound in the
world (with the middleweight Gennady Golovkin, from
Kazakstan).
Kovalev is considered as the fifth or six best fighter pound
for pound. A match up Kovalev-Ward in November would
certainly be considered as the biggest event of the year on
the international boxing scene. A fight between two fighters
ranked among the best boxers pound for pound in the world,
is not too common.
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