Stevenson the highest profile cherry picker outside of Mayweather?

Stevenson arrived on the scene in pretty impressive fashion, blasting out the light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson. For a while it seemed like there was a welcome addition to what had been a fully crap light heavyweight division (worst in history maybe?). To make things even better, there was another massive punching KO machine heading in the same direction - Sergie Kovalev. Between the pair of them they began clear out the deadbeats - Cleverly, Bellew, Cloud, Campillo. A fight between the pair was but a certainty with HBO steadingly manouvering both men into a hugely anticipated fight. Then Stevenson jumped ship citing some second rate excuse that Mayweather himself would have enjoyed. Kovalev was furious and wasted no time in calling Stevenson a pu$$y. Stevensons response was the macho "I make more money than you". The fight didnt happen. Since then Stevenson has seen fights with Hopkins and Pascal fall through. Two more "no brainer" fights for the supposed top man in the division. Both times Kovalev stepped in. He took care of Hopkins and seems to be set to face Pascal (barring some strange ruling for the fiasco in Pascals last fight). Meanwhile Stevenson continues to brag about making more money and having more fans while he fights nobodies. At an already advanced age, when, if ever, will Stevenson step up and take on a top name?

Is Dawson, Bellew and Cloud.....really shocking ???.. compared to Cleverley, a 50 yr old man and Froch-victim Pascal ??

Tad harsh this article me thinketh..

The guy is packing a serious glass mandible, at his age he might as well earn as much as he can against relative non threats rather than imo a guy who as soon as he lands will have him in serious trouble.

Stevenson did beat the top man (in Dawson) so can be cut a little slack. Clearly, though, he (or more likely his management) doesn't fancy any part of Kovalev.

Think cherry picker is a bit harsh but he's put himself in an odd position signing with Haymon.

Stevenson has swerved fights with his top 3 ranked fellow challengers one after another. That is a hell of streak.

Top three? Who?

Hes had fights with Kovalev, Hopkins and Pascal all fall through in the last 12 months. Those are probably the three highest ranked opponets outside himself.

Not sure a fight with Hopkins was ever a possibility, pretty sure Stevenson switched to Showtime only to see Hopkins switch to HBO to fight Kovalev.

He negotitiated with all three and backed out every time. One excuse after another. The Kovalev duck was the worst. Hugely anticapted fight that HBO had invested time and money building up steadily only for Stevenson to tuck tail when the fight started looming large.

Stevensons next fight after Sukhotsky is Pascal, it's pretty much signed sealed and delivered but Hopkins I don't think they have ever been in negotiations and why would they have been fighting on rival networks.

It goes without saying that he's avoided Kovalev like the plague, fight looks nailed on and he decides to jump ship to Showtime fighting two middling opposition.

It looks like Kovalev v Pascal is more likely to be next.

catchweight wrote:It looks like Kovalev v Pascal is more likely to be next.

Signed I believe?

Hopkins and Stevenson held negotiations without any success. I think that was the reason or one of the main reasons Hopkins switched to fight Kovalev. Stevenson was his first choice.

My mind went a complete blank there so yes I do actually agree with you on Pascal, so dodging Kovalev and Pascal does not look good. That has the potential to be a great fight if Pascal can stand up to the right hand.

catchweight wrote:Hopkins and Stevenson held negotiations without any success. I think that was the reason or one of the main reasons Hopkins switched to fight Kovalev. Stevenson was his first choice.

My understanding is that De La Hoya was using Hopkins as a guinea pig to build bridges with HBO and therefore Arum.

It may have ended up like that, but there was months of negotiations with Stevenson first before eventually turning to Kovlalev.

Hopkins take is that Stevenson was full of sh1t about the fight. Hopkins had a mandatory deadline against some nobody that none of the networks wanted. Stevensons team knew this so stalled and farted about hoping that the mandatory deadline would either force Hopkins to vacate his title (positioning a Haymon fighter to fight for the vacant) or capitulate to accepting unfavourable terms. They didnt figure Hopkins had the option of Kovalev so when that became available the Stevenson fight evaporated. Hopkins said he believed it was a ploy to try and force him to vacate his title so a Haymon fighter could get a shot at the vacant.

If that's the case then Haymon and Stevenson are bloody idiots for thinking they could dictate to Hopkins, he's always had a back up plan, whether you like him or not his first thought is always unification.

Fair play for what he HAS achieved, and for the fashion he has accomplished it in.

But since Dawson he definitely deserves the ducker tag as he has for sure done everything he can to avoid the Kov fight and has conveniently side-stepped his next two closest challengers also - Hoppo (would school him) & Pascal (would expect Adonis to win fine).

Added to him being a thoroughly unpleasant individual, definitely close to topping the list of boxers I'd like to see take a hiding, all I want for Xmas is Stevenson-Kov......!!

agree with Toppy and catchweight (which is a bit of a shock ). Stevenson beat the man at the weight in Dawson, but since then, nothing really substantial. He clearly wants no part of Kovalev, but he also swerved Hopkins (who then decided to fight Kovalev instead, fair play to the old man for that). I'm slightly less fussed about Pascal, but it does begin to add up, hence why I bumped him down a fair bit on the P4P list we had a week ago or so...

TopHat24/7 wrote:Fair play for what he HAS achieved, and for the fashion he has accomplished it in.

But since Dawson he definitely deserves the ducker tag as he has for sure done everything he can to avoid the Kov fight and has conveniently side-stepped his next two closest challengers also - Hoppo (would school him) & Pascal (would expect Adonis to win fine).

Added to him being a thoroughly unpleasant individual, definitely close to topping the list of boxers I'd like to see take a hiding, all I want for Xmas is Stevenson-Kov......!!

Does anyone really think a 50 year old Hoppo schools Stevenson ??..

Yes, because Adonis is a banger not a boxer. Kov dismantled Hoppo because his power was under-written by serious boxing skills and decent amateur pedigree.

Adonis doesn't have that, he's just a reasonably talented thug. The sort of person Hoppo eats for breakfast.

Age a factor, yes, but this fight could've happened when Hoppo was 12 months younger at least....

Stevenson would beat Hopkins handily enough. Fight would stink though.

I'm not saying that stevenson didn't avoid hoppo, he very possibly did, but Hopkins has a reputation for being the hardest guy out there to negotiate with. You get the feeling kovalev would fight anyone, but stevenson would be haggling with the prime haggler.

Hopkins and Stevenson were negotiating for quite a while. Hopkins wanted Stevenson then Kovalev. He knew Kovalev would be a much tougher fight.

Not sure how Hopkins can be considered a hard man to negotiate with. Hes fought most of the guys he should have done over the years

...He did eventually, usually after plenty of negotiating. That's  his rep, lance, I haven't had the pleasure of cutting a deal with the guy, so it's all hearsay.

Lance is his buddy......

Avoiding kovolev doesn't make him a cherry picker, his last few opponents have been rated

Bellew??

Bellew was a mandatory. Not his fault WBC picked such a bum

Lol I know, but it does raise question marks of the use of the word 'rated' to defend someone's oppos.