Is it too good to be true? Adonis Stevenson, nearly five years after dethroning Chad Dawson, is finally taking on a true top contender in Badou Jack. Gary Russell Jr is also making his annual ring appearance in the other half of the split site doubleheader against very talented rising contender JoJo Diaz. This is an excellent Showtime show.
To say that Adonis Stevenson’s (29-1, 24 KOs) title reign has been a disappointment would just be stating the obvious at this point. Stevenson, a Haitian transplant who has fought his career out of Quebec, won the title with much fanfare via a shocking first round stoppage of Chad Dawson in 2013.
Since then he has defended it eight times. Two of the opponents, Dmitry Sukhotskiy and Tommy Karpency, were extremely weak defenses. The other defenses weren’t as bad as those two, like beating Tony Bellew before his cruiserweight success, but even Tavoris Cloud and Sakio Bika were coming off losses. None of the defenses were against the top few fighters in the division.
Andrzej Fonfara was one of Stevenson’s better defenses the first time, more seeming so after the fight when the Polish challenger had been surprisingly competitive. Well, competitive isn’t the right word, really. Adonis Stevenson dominated that fight. Through eight rounds he had basically swept the cards and dropped Fonfara twice.
Out of no where Stevenson was dropped and hurt in the ninth, but he recovered well in the tenth and then fought on even terms over the last two rounds. The fight became exciting, but Fonfara never really came close to finishing Stevenson and he rightfully lost wide on the cards. Had they immediately made the rematch it would have been a little weird, but the fight was fun down the stretch so people would have gotten behind it. Instead they waited for Fonfara’s stock to fall with a KO1 loss to Joe Smith Jr and a near loss to a shot Chad Dawson had he not pulled out the miracle last round finish.
The rematch was Stevenson’s most recent fight last summer. It was as farcical as it looked on paper with Adonis topping Fonfara inside a round. At the time I bluntly referred to the matchup as a “stupid fight” at every chance and it delivered on that promise. Thankfully, Saturday night’s main event is not a stupid fight at all for once.
Badou Jack (22-1-2, 13 KOs) is an excellent fighter. The Swedish contender was a known prospect signed to Mayweather Promotions in 2014, but he suffered a big set back when he was caught cold and stopped in one on ShoBox by veteran journeyman Derek Edwards. At that point Jack was basically written off having already suffered a surprise draw to underrated super middleweight contender Marco Antonio Periban just two fights before.
While it made sense to disregard Jack at the time, he quickly went on to prove all his doubters wrong, myself included. After two dominant comeback performances against lesser competition, Badou found himself as a serious underdog in his first world title opportunity against Anthony Dirrell barely over a year removed from being knocked out. Jack really turned it on over the second half of the fight that night to secure a well earned decision win and his first belt.
Not only did he secure that win, but his first defense was a big one against now titleholder George Groves. Badou again found himself in a close fight, but a first round knockdown gave him the margins he needed to again earn a big win. Keeping in with the big names, Jack’s next fight with Lucian Bute was originally ruled a draw. Bute did rally well down the stretch, but it seemed like a generous decision for the Montreal fighter to say the least. Badou deserved that win. He did end up getting it non-traditionally when Bute was later disqualified for having failed a drug test.
Next Jack and his team tried to unify super middleweight belts with James DeGale. Both men hit the canvas in an excellent, high quality contest that was this time fairly scored a draw. A rematch would have been nice, but unfortunately the Swedish fighter announced that he could no longer make super middleweight and moved to light heavyweight on last summer’s mega Mayweather-McGregor PPV against former titleholder Nathan Cleverly. Jack was nothing sort of dominant in his divisional debut, stopping the British fighter after five one sided rounds.
Here we have a light heavyweight king in Adonis Stevenson who hasn’t fought a top contender in five years against a recent super middleweight who has spent the last fight years exclusively fighting top contenders in close fights seven pounds south. It should also be noted that Adonis is now 40 years old and certainly nearing the end of his career. All this seems to favor Jack here despite Stevenson likely being the bigger man in the ring, but I am not quite convinced enough to proclaim that I am confident in him pulling it off. Here is my concern: Badou Jack can be hurt and hurt early. There isn’t a bigger and more dangerous single punch in boxing than Adonis Stevenson’s monster left. It is an epic shot. I am worried that he might be able to blitz his challenger right out of the gate. If not, Badou probably carries the fight late, but it is a distinct possibility that Stevenson just blows him out in a round or two.
That fight will be in Toronto while Gary Russell Jr (28-1, 17 KOs) defends his WBC featherweight title in Maryland against rising Golden Boy contender Joseph “JoJo” Diaz (26-0, 14 KOs) as the other half of the split site doubleheader. I see this as a pretty similar fight to the main event. Gary Russell Jr is a dynamic athlete who hasn’t given to the sport what he could have, much like Adonis Stevenson. He has only fought once a year over the past three years, only bothering to make the one minimum defense he needs to to keep his title. The past two were pretty weak against Oscar Escandon and especially Paul Hyland Jr too. The last time he really took on a top contender was in 2015 against Jhonny Gonzalez, but even Jhonny was aging then, always somewhat fragile, and really made to order.
Still, that was a great performance and a good win. What was neither was the only other time Russell has definitively stepped up. That was when he took on then 1-1 Vasyl Lomachenko as the now pound for pound king started his ascent to the sport’s top. Russell had nothing for the amateur legend that night despite the bogus majority decision making the fight look close. I’ve always contested that he stopped trying pretty early in that fight too. He just kept throwing combinations from far away that could never land while accomplishing next to nothing in there.
Gary Russell Jr has looked spectacular at times in the ring, but the truth is that his record is still quite hollow. He is also seemingly entirely disinterested in the sport other than showing up once a year to collect his annual check. 25 year old former US Olympian JoJo Diaz (26-0, 14 KOs) is even more untested as he remains mostly a prospect looking to graduate here, but he is a gifted and active fighter. He doesn’t have the dynamic athleticism of a Gary Russell Jr, few do, but he is a good athlete with a great sense of ring generalship and a lot of obvious talent. He is also, again, young and active.
Will it be enough to dethrone Gary Russell Jr? I am not sure, just like in the main event. I am going to confess something I rarely do though. I sure hope it is. I initially found Russell’s refusal to fight top fighters off putting as a he stayed a prospect longer than most. Then, when he got the title and the spotlight, he became increasingly vocal about not having any interest in the sport. He openly talks about not keeping up with or caring about boxing. For years now he has been in a phase where he doesn’t even bother to fight anymore either. I am ready to be done with Gary Russell Jr and I am okay expressing that.
The show starts at 10 PM Eastern on Showtime. It is a damn good one too, so be around to watch. No excuses on this one fights fans.
