Stevenson, Fonfara meet in rematch
Adonis Stevenson will be making the eighth defence of his WBC lightheavyweight belt when he meets Andrzej Fonfara in a rematch at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada, on Saturday night.
The Haitian-born Canadian, Stevenson (28-1; 23), made a fast start in the first fight against Fonfara (29-4-1nc; 17) on 24 May 2015, scoring knockdowns in the first and fifth rounds.
However, Stevenson, 39, began to run out of gas in the later rounds and Fonfara dropped him in the ninth round. Despite the knockdown, the southpaw Stevenson finished strongly and won with scores of 116-109 and 115-110 twice.
Since the win over Fonfara, Stevenson has made successful defences of the WBC belt against Dmitry Suthotskiy (ko 5), Sakio Bika (pts 12), Tommy Karpency (tko 3) and Thomas Williams Jnr (ko 4). He also has victories over quality fighters like Tavoris Cloud (rtd 7) and Tony Bellew (rsf 6).
The only loss on Stevenson’s record was against Darnell Boone (tko 2) in April 2010, which he reversed three years later with a sixth-round stoppage.
Fonfara, 29, who was born in Warsaw, Poland, but fights out of Chicago, USA, has had five fights since the loss to Stevenson, winning against Doudou Ngumbu, Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr and Nathan Cleverly before he lost on a firstround stoppage against Joe Smith Jnr; and in his most recent fight he stopped Chad Dawson in the tenth round. The only other two losses on his record came early in his career against Eberto Medina and Derrick Findley.
The muscular Stevenson, who fights from the southpaw stance, is a powerful fighter who throws big shots to the head and body throughout, whereas Fonfara tends to wear down his opponents with a solid work rate.
However, the odds are that Stevenson will once again emerge the winner and it could even be inside the distance.