RING/WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson weighed 174.5 pounds at Thursday’s weigh-in for his Friday title defense against Dmitry Sukhotsky, who weighed in at 173.5, at Colisee de Quebec in Quebec City, Canada. The fight will be televised on Showtime in the U.S.

Stevenson (24-1, 20 knockouts) was last in action for a unanimous decision over Andrzej Fonfara in May, and is 14-1 with 13 knockouts in his past 15 fights. Stevenson, a 37-year-old southpaw, said that he injured his left hand in the second round against Fonfara.

Sukhotsky (22-2, 16 KOs) has won four straight bouts since losing a unanimous decision to Cornelius White in July 2012. Prior to that fight, Sukhotsky, 33, stopped current No. 8-rated light heavyweight Nadjib Mohammedi, the mandatory challenger to IBF/WBA/WBO titleholder and RING No. 1-rated Sergey Kovalev.

Super middleweight title challenger Andre Dirrell (23-1, 16 KOs) weighed 167.75 compared to 167 for rival Derek Edwards (27-3-1, 14 KOs) in advance of their fight.

Dirrell-Edwards serves as an IBF title eliminator for the No. 2 spot in the organization’s rankings behind England’s No. 1-rated James DeGale, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist who is THE RING’s No. 4-rated 168-pounder.

The IBF’s titleholder, Carl Froch of England, is THE RING’s No. 9-rated fighter pound-for-pound as well as its No. 1-rated super middleweight behind RING champion Andre Ward.

By facing Edwards, Dirrell, 31, is returning to Showtime for the first time since appearing in the “Super Six World Boxing Classic” super middleweight tournament in 2010. It was at that time when Dirrell suffered his lone defeat in his opening tournament bout to then-WBC titleholder Froch by split decision in October 2009.

A switch-hitting 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, Dirrell will be after his sixth straight victory against Edwards, and is coming off a fourth-round stoppage of Nick Brinson in October, representing his fifth straight win and his third stoppage during that run.

Nicknamed “The Black Lion,” Edwards, 35, is 2-3-1 with one knockout in his past six fights. Edwards is coming off a 61-second knockout over previously unbeaten Badou Jack in February to rebound from a ninth-round stoppage loss to Matt Korobov last December.

Edwards has also lost consecutive fights to Marcus Johnson by unanimous decision in April 2010 and third-round knockout to Stevenson in his following fight in April 2011.

Russian 175-pound prospect Artur Beterbiev (6-0, 6 KOs) weighed174.5 to 174.25 for Jeff Page Jr. (15-0, 10 KOs), and welterweights Kevin Bizier (23-1, 16 KOs) and Jo Jo Dan (33-2, 18 KOs) came in at 146.75 each for their rematch.

In his last fight in September, Beterbiev, 29, scored a second-round knockout of former IBF titleholder Tavoris Cloud and still has not gone beyond four rounds.