By Ian S. Palmer
Adonis Stevenson has the hometown advantage on Oct 12 when he takes on Don George at Montreal, Canada’s Bell Centre. The two will meet in an IBF super middleweight elimination bout with the winner reportedly earning a title shot at current champion Carl Froch of England. Stevenson hails from Haiti originally, but has since moved to Canada and is now based in the province of Quebec, while George fights out of Chicago, Illinois.
The boxers were originally scheduled to slug it out back in August, but Stevenson suffered a hand injury and pulled out of the bout. George went ahead and took on Dionisio Miranda instead and scored a sixth-round knockout over the replacement boxer. The IBF has the 35-year-old Stevenson ranked as its number two fighter and ranks George as the 11th best in the division.
Both boxers have a lot of dynamite packed into their fists with Stevenson having an 18-1 record with 15 knockouts and George carrying a record of 23-2-1 with 20 knockouts. Looking at their KO records, there’s a pretty good chance this bout isn’t going to make it to the final bell. It’s a little odd that an 11th-ranked fighter like George is fighting in an elimination bout, but that’s how the IBF has billed the fight.
If there’s a clear advantage anywhere in this fight, it could be the age difference. George is just 27 while Stevenson is 35. Stevenson is 5-foot-11 and George is an inch taller at 6 feet, so their pretty close when it comes to height. And even though Stevenson didn’t turn professional until he was close to 30 years old in 2006 he’s fought the better opponents over the years. In addition, he’s also a southpaw and that could cause George a few problems.
But even if either of these boxers is behind on the scorecards they’re never out of a fight due to the tremendous power they possess. George will need to get off to a good start and can’t afford to look as sluggish as he did in his bout against Miranda. He was rocked on several occasions by Miranda, but his power came through for him and he managed to stop his opponent.
George has been a pro since 2004 and he didn’t taste defeat until six years later when he was stopped in the seventh round on a technical decision by Francisco Sierra. Three fights later he lost again at the hands of Edwin Rodriguez when his undefeated opponent scored a 10-round unanimous decision over him. Stevenson’s only loss came in 2010 when Darnell Boone knocked him out in the second round.
He has fought better boxers than George, but none of them have really been top-10 opponents. Some of these include Marlon Hayes, Etianne Whitaker, Derek Edwards, Anthony Bonsante, Jesus Gonzalez, and Aaron Pryor Jr. Stevenson scored a second-round KO over Noe Gonzalez Alcoba in his last bout, which took place in April.
Prediction
Nobody’s really sure how well Stevenson’s hand has healed and this could be a factor. These two guys like to slug it out and it’s doubtful that we’re going to see them put on a boxing exhibition. Look for both of them to land some bombs with Stevenson eventually wearing George down and stopping him in an exciting brawl.
