Adonis Stevenson rooting for Bernard Hopkins, Sergey Kovalev
RING and WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson said he will be rooting for 175-pound counterparts Bernard Hopkins and Sergey Kovalev to win their respective upcoming title defenses with the goal of facing one or both of them in unification bouts.
Stevenson (23-1, 20 knockouts) told RingTV.com that he will be watching HBO on Saturday as Kovalev (23-0-1, 21 KOs) puts his WBO belt on the line against Cedric Agnew (26-0, 13 KOs) at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.
On April 19, Stevenson's eyes will be on Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KOs) as the 49-year-old IBF beltholder faces WBA titleholder Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KOs) on Showtime from The D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C.
"I'll be watching his fight, but I think that Kovalev is going to win that fight. I will also be watching the Hopkins fight, also," said Stevenson. "I'm rooting for Hopkins and I'm rooting Kovalev, because, you know I will be ready to fight either of them after my next fight."
Stevenson, meanwhile, is gearing up for a Thursday press conference in Montreal to officially anounce his HBO-televised May 24 defense against Chicago-based contender Andrzej Fonfara (25-2, 15 KOs), a 26-year-old winner of 15 straight, with 12 of those victories coming by way of stoppage.
"This is a great opportunity for me," said Stevenson, who was last in the ring for November's sixth-round knockout of Tony Bellew, the 36-year-old southpaw's fourth stoppage victory over the course of 2013. Stevenson was THE RING's Fighter of the Year for 2013.
"I've trained hard for this fight because I know that Fonfara is coming and that he's going to be in shape and ready for me. I know that he wants to take my title, but it's not going to happen like that, because I'm going to win by another knockout, because knockouts sell."