It’s been years since WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson made a mandatory title defense but that is about to change.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told ESPN that Stevenson has been ordered to face interim titlist and mandatory challenger Oleksandr Gvozdyk next. The fight does not have a deal yet so Sulaiman ordered a purse bid that will take place on July 2.
Carl Moretti, Gvozdyk’s promoter, also told ESPN that he and Yvon Michel, Stevenson’s promoter, are exchanging emails in the hopes that the two sides agree to a fight.
“We’d like the fight to happen sooner rather than later,” Moretti said. “Whatever happens at the purse bid, if we don’t make a deal, will dictate when and where the fight happens.”
Stevenson’s last defense took place back i May when his fight against former WBA light heavyweight champion Badou Jack ended in a draw. Stevenson, who also holds the lineal light heavyweight title, won the WBC title in 2013 when he defeated Chad Dawson. Stevenson has made nine title defenses of his WBC title.
The WBC champion was previously ordered to fight Eleider Alvarez, previously the governing body’s mandatory challenger, before Stevenson agreed to fight Jack, Alvarez was then put in an interim title fight against Gvozdyk but Alvarez pulled out after being unhappy with not getting the title shot that he is owed. Gvozdyk claimed the vacant interim belt by decision over Mehdi Amar on March 17 on a Top Rank Boxing card at Madison Square Garden. Alvarez is currently scheduled to challenge for Sergey Kovalev’s WBO title in August in Atlantic City.
