WBC set to rule on Adonis Stevenson’s ‘unacceptable’ title reign
Stevenson hasn’t made a mandatory title defense since 2013.
It’s been four years since WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson has made a mandatory title defense. Four years! And WBC regulations state that a champion must make at least one mandatory defense per year. That obviously hasn’t been the case for Stevenson, but it appears that run will finally becoming to an end in the near future.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman says he’s working on a resolution that, we hope, will see No. 1 contender Eleider Alvarez finally get his shot at the world title. Alvarez earned the mandatory position back in 2015.
The WBC claims the hold up in Stevenson mandatory defense situation wasn’t anyone’s fault in particular, citing that they prioritized making a unification bout between Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev at the time (which never came to fruition) and then an eliminator bout between Alvarez and Isaac Chilemba. Alvarez then, according to Sulaiman, agreed to step aside while Stevenson took on Saiko Bika, Thomas Williams Jr., and Andrzej Fonfara.
But Sulaiman is now promising that there will be more transparency in Stevenson’s title situation, which should see him step in with Alvarez in the coming year. It would be the first time Stevenson made a mandatory defense since beating Tony Bellew back in late 2013 — although Sulaiman struggles to to admit as much.
“We are addressing the Adonis Stevenson matter,” stated Sulaiman.
“It's not four years (without a mandatory, as suggested) and Sergey Kovalev hurt the process as well. But it's unacceptable to continue and the WBC is ruling soon.”
Has anyone in boxing had a more lackluster title reign than Adonis Stevenson?