Superman Stevenson overcomes Kryptonite
Montreal’s WBC champion wants to face WBA and IBF titleholder Sergei Kovalev
In the week leading up to his title bout with Montreal’s Adonis (Superman) Stevenson, American challenger Tommy (Kryptonite) Karpency insisted Stevenson’s percussive punching power wouldn’t prompt him to change his game plan. He would fight his own fight, he insisted, and force the WBC lightheavyweight champ to adjust.
And Stevenson adjusted emphatically, walking Karpency into a series of stunning overhand lefts, and winning successfully defending his title via third-round knockout at the Ri- coh Centre.
The win improves Stevenson’s record to 27-1 with 22 knockouts, and cements his status as one of the top two light-heavyweights in the world.
“He tried,” the 37-year-old Stevenson said in the ring after the final bell. “But Kryptonite lost tonight.”
Karpency entered the bout as a heavy underdog, and not just because he had lost in his previous attempt to win a world title.
The 29-year-old travelled to Toronto from Adah, Penn., a small coal mining town south of Pittsburgh, where he and his two brothers train in church they converted into a boxing ring.
After introductions, former IBF 122-pound champion Steve Molitor, seated in the sixth row with his wife and some buddies, offered a predic- tion.
“Don’t blink,” he told his friends. “This could be quick.”
Agroup of Karpency’s friends, seated a few spots to Molitor’s left, shot him icy glares.
And Karpency competed early, landing a solid right hook in the opening round before Stevenson responded with a thudding left. In the second round another Karpency right hook wobbled the champion, giving his small cheering section a moment of hope.
But with 10 seconds left in the round a crisp left hand floored Karpency, who rose after the bell sounded.
When the third round began Stevenson pressed, jabbing Karpency’s belly before launching the overhand left that ended the fight.
Since his one-round demolition of Chad Dawson to claim the WBC light-heavyweight title in June of 2013, Stevenson has blossomed into one of the division’s super elite fighters
Most fans hope this string of wins leads to a showdown with Floridabased Russian Sergei Kovalev, the WBA and IBF champ and widely acknowledged as one of the world’s top fighters, pound for pound.
Afterward Stevenson called again for the bout that, to this point, boxing politics have kept from materializing.
In the spring of 2014 the WBC made Kovalev a mandatory challenger for Stevenson’s title but Kovalev’s camp cut off negotiations rather than participate in the bout. Meanwhile the fighters toil on opposite sides of box- ing’s broadcast contract divide. Kovalev fights on HBO while Stevenson is advised by boxing power broker Al Haymon, whose fighters appear on Showtime and on the Premier Boxing Champions cable series.
Though Friday’s event was co-promoted by Toronto-based Global Legacy Boxing and Montreal’s Groupe Yvon Michel, Haymon’s group covered roughly 80 per cent of the costs, organizers said.
The Canadian promoters hope to bring four similar events to Toronto over the next year, with Stevenson playing a featured role if he continues winning.
Stevenson’s title defence was the first world championship fight in Toronto since 1984, when Aaron Pryor defeated Nick Furlano via 15-round decision at Varsity Arena.