After weeks of waiting for an official announcement, the WBC light heavyweight title fight between Adonis Stevenson and Badou Jack has an official venue.
The WBC title fight, which had been penciled in to take place on May 19 on Showtime, will now take place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada instead of the Bell Centre in Montreal as originally planned. The fight will headline the Toronto card as part of a split-site broadcast on Showtime on May 19 with the telecast also featuring the WBC featherweight title fight between Gary Russell Jr. and Joseph Diaz.
In a press release sent to Fightful, Stevenson said he is happy to fight in his home country once more and predicts a knockout victory over Jack, a former WBA light heavyweight champion.
"I'm definitely excited and hungry to get into the ring and perform. I've trained very hard for this fight against Badou Jack. I'm looking forward to winning this fight by knockout. He's tough and I won't underestimate him. I'll be prepared for anything he brings in the ring," Stevenson said.
The fight had been in the works for several months as part of the WBC's plan to have the champion fulfill his duty to fight his mandatory challenger. Frustrated with not getting the fight against Stevenson, mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez elected to pursue a fight with WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev and so the WBC ordered an interim light heavyweight fight with the winner facing the Stevenson vs. Jack winner. Oleksandr Gvozdyk defeated Mehdi Amar back in March to win the interim WBC title.
