Saturday, September 12, 2015

Stevenson KO’s Karpency To Retain WBC Light-Heavyweight World Championship



WBC Light-Heavyweight world champion Adonis Stevenson successfully made the sixth defense of his world championship by scoring a devastating third round knockout over WBC number nine rated contender Tommy Karpency on Friday night at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Although this fight began at a measured pace, it was the champion who dictated the combat.


Stevenson had a clear speed and power advantage over Karpency. The champion demonstrated his power by being able to stun the challenger with a counter left hook halfway through the first round when Karpency appeared to be having some success in landing a partial combination on the champion. 


It was in the closing seconds of the second round however, that Stevenson would nearly bring the fight to a sudden conclusion. The champion staggered Karpency with a straight left hand and sent the challenger down to the canvas with a follow-up barrage. Karpency showed his mettle by getting up at the count of nine just barely beating the count and was able to survive the round. Karpency however, was not able to recover between rounds to and three as the champion quickly pounced on the challenger at the start of the third round quickly flooring Karpency for the second time. Although Karpency would get up from the knockdown again at the count of nine, the bout was stopped by Referee Hector Afu. Official time of the stoppage was :21 of round three.


Adonis Stevenson advances to 27-1, with 22 Knockouts. Tommy Karpency falls to 25-5-1, with 14 Knockouts.


Although Karpency had some sporadic success in being able to land his offense on Stevenson, he simply was not able to let his hands go consistently. This can be attributed to Stevenson’s style in which he uses significant lateral movement to evade his opponents and set up counter punch opportunities.


It is unclear coming out of this fight whether Stevenson is any closer to a potential unification clash with undefeated unified WBO/IBF/WBA Light-Heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev in a fight that would determine an Undisputed Light-Heavyweight world champion. Both fighters have continued to defeat all opposition placed before them, often by way of knockout.


As this observer stated following Kovalev’s knockout over Nadjib Mohammedi in July although there may be fighters who could be in position to challenge either Kovalev or Stevenson for their respective world championships, in my eyes it is time to make Stevenson-Kovalev a reality. It would be a fight that would not only determine the best Light-Heavyweight in the world, but also quite frankly the best fight that could be made right now in the Light-Heavyweight division. Whether or not Stevenson-Kovalev will come either later this year or in early 2016 remains to be seen. The opinion of this observer however, will not change. Gentlemen it’s time.


“And That’s The Boxing Truth.”


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