Thursday, March 28, 2024  |

News

Aficianado

Adonis Stevenson rooting for Bernard Hopkins, Sergey Kovalev

Fighters Network
24
Mar

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."

SIGN UP TO GET RING NEWS ALERTS