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Jean Pascal: Adonis Stevenson’s KO of Dmitry Sukhotsky ‘was a mismatch’

Fighters Network
21
Dec

Jean Pascal called Adonis Stevenson’s four knockdown, fifth-round stoppage of Dmitry Sukhotsky on Friday a “mismatch on paper and in the ring.”

A former RING and WBC light heavyweight champion himself, Pascal later referred to the current RING champ as, “Aducknis Chickenson,” out of his belief that his fellow Canadian resident has avoided premier competition.

Not only did Pascal make light of Stevenson’s performance, but he also implied that his countryman might lose to unbeaten Artur Beterbiev, who rose from a first-round knockdown and scored three of his own in a second-round stoppage win on the Stevenson-Sukhotsky undercard.

Pascal spoke to RingTV.com on Saturday.



“Stevenson had the kind of performance you should expect in a mismatch. It was a mismatch on paper and in the ring,” said Pascal of Stevenson, who went 4-0, all knockouts, in 2013.

“If he has another voluntary defense, I would love to see him fight Beterbiev. I think that’s the only way he can save face and start to rebuild his image, which for some reason he felt like destroying in 2014.”

Stevenson signed with adviser Al Haymon in February and left HBO for rival network Showtime in March, presumably to pursue a shot at Bernard Hopkins. Stevenson’s exodus led then-WBO Kovalev to lament “a lost opportunity to knock out” Stevenson.

Ironically, Hopkins left Showtime for last month’s HBO-televised unification bout with Kovalev, whose unanimous decision added Hopkins’ IBF and WBA belts to his WBO title.

Most recently, Pascal passed up an opportunity for a mandatory shot at Stevenson in order to challenge Kovalev, which he will do on HBO on March 14.

Nicknamed “Superman,” Stevenson scored a unanimous decision victory against Andrezej Fonfara in May, but had to rise from the canvas in the ninth round to do it.

Stevenson’s four knockouts in 2013 were against Darnell Boone (a rematch of Stevenson’s only loss, in 2010), Chad Dawson, Tavoris Cloud and Tony Bellew.

Meanwhile, the WBC has mandated that Stevenson face the winner of Kovalev-Pascal.

“It’s great that the WBC has gotten in on trying to force Adonis to make a real fight,” said Pascal, who, like Stevenson, is of Haitian descent. “Hopefully, he doesn’t vacate the title if the time ever arrives for him to fight the winner between Kovalev and myself. One never knows with Aducknis Chickenson, he may look for a rubbermatch with Darnell Boone.”

 

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