MONTREAL: Hard-hitting Adonis Stevenson puts his World Boxing Council light heavyweight title on the line today for a third time when he faces tough Russian challenger Dmitry Sukhotsky in Quebec City.
Stevenson has held the crown since snatching it from Chad Dawson in June 2013, and while it’s not the unification bout with Russian Sergey Kovalev that most fight fans would prefer, the Canadian champion said he’d have to be on his guard.
“He’s not here as a tourist,” said the 37-year-old champion. “He’s a tough guy who has trained for 12 rounds. He’s in top condition, and I’ll definitely have to be careful.”
But Stevenson, who was born in Haiti, still thinks he can be the first to knock out Sukhotsky, who is 22-2 with 16 KOs.
“I’m not going to rush in,” said Stevenson, a southpaw who boasts a record of 24-1 with 20 KOs. “I’m going to take my time to work him over and then finish him off.”
Sukhotsky, 33, will be getting his second title shot. He lost a unanimous decision to Juergen Braehmer for the German’s World Boxing Organization belt in 2009.
“I feel in great shape and I’m glad I have the opportunity to fight for a world title,” Sukhotsky said, adding that he wouldn’t be intimidated by the fiercely pro-Stevenson crowd.
“The better boxer will win,” said the Russian.
Although he says he can’t afford to look past Sukhotsky, Stevenson acknowledged that Kovalev is on his radar. He wants a 2015 fight with the Russian who owns the WBO, International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association light heavyweight belts. Kovalev is next scheduled to meet former world champion Jean Pascal, another Haitian-born Canadian, in Montreal on March 14.
Meanwhile, former heavyweight boxing champion Ernie Terrell, best known for his punishing loss to Muhammad Ali in the famed “What’s My Name?” fight in 1967, has died at the age of 75, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Terrell, a towering 6-foot 6-inch boxer with an 82-inch reach, had been suffering from dementia and died at his home in Roseland, Chicago on Tuesday.
Born in Mississippi, Terrell beat Eddie Machen in 1965 to claim the vacant World Boxing Association heavyweight crown and successfully defended the title in his next two fights before losing it to Ali in a lop-sided bout on February 6, 1967. The pair slugged it out over 15 rounds at the Astrodome in Houston where a fuming Ali made Terrell pay for refusing to call him by his adopted name, instead referring to his birth name of Cassius Clay.
Agencies
