By Ian S Palmer
WBC Light Heavyweight Champion Adonis Stevenson will be defending his title again in his adopted hometown of Montreal, Quebec on Saturday May 24. Stevenson takes on Polish native Andrzej Fonfara, who now fights out of Chicago, Illinois. The 12-round bout from the Bell Centre can be seen on the Showtime network in the U.S., while it’s on pay-per-view in Canada and BoxNation in Britain. This is Stevenson’s first bout with Showtime since jumping ship from HBO. It’s also his first fight since stopping Tony Bellew of Britain in the sixth round last November.
The 36-year-old champion, who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, will be entering the ring with a record of 23-1 along with 20 Kos. Fonfara is 10 years his junior at 26 and has a mark of 25-2 with 15 Kos. Most fans don’t see this as a true test for Stevenson as Fonfara is relatively unknown outside of Poland and the Chicago area. However, Fonfara’s been on a bit of a roll lately ad he’s won 12 out of his last 13 outings and they’ve all come by stoppage. The only opponent to take him the distance over that time was former champion Glen Johnson. He also has a ninth round TKO against Gabriel Campillo.
Stevenson has plenty of power in his fists while Fonfara isn’t quite at the same level when it comes to that department and that could be the difference in this fight. Fonfara may be a solid pro, but he doesn’t really stand out in any one area. Stevenson, who’s a southpaw by the way, also has some boxing skills to go along with his power punching and they may be useful since Fonfara has a five-inch reach advantage along with three inches in height.
If Fonfara wins it’s certainly going to be labeled as an upset, but with a 10-year age advantage and decent skills it’s not a totally unrealistic scenario. For Fonfara to take the title he’s going to have the best night of his career while Stevenson will likely have to have one of his worst. It’s also possible that Stevenson takes his Polish challenger too lightly and that could be a huge mistake if he isn’t able to stop him. Stevenson has lost just once in his career and that was by KO to journeyman Darnell Boone, so that may give Fonfara a bit of hope. Fonfara’s been stopped once as well, in the second round to Derrick Findley back in 2008.
Prediction
Fonfara’s going to have to box and try to wear Stevenson down while the champion would rather end the night with a knockout. If the challenger doesn’t have enough sting in his shots to keep Stevenson at bay then it’s going to be a tough task for him. Fonfara might have enough skill to surprise a lot of people, including Stevenson, but eventually the champion will eventually catch him and stop him after a few competitive rounds.
