Adonis Stevenson vs. Thomas Williams Jr. is a puncher's battle

Adonis Stevenson, left, defeated Tommy Karpency by TKO last September. Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Dan Rafael
ESPN Senior Writer

Light heavyweight world champion Adonis Stevenson will turn 39 on Sept. 22 and he has not boxed in 10 months. That is not typically a good combination for a prize fighter.

But Stevenson said he has no worries about rust in his ring return, which will come when he makes his seventh title defense against fellow explosive puncher Thomas Williams Jr. in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card on Friday (Spike, 9 p.m. ET) at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City.

“Last year, I think I did three or four fights. Now this year I’m going to fight two times, so my layoff will be good for me,” Stevenson said during a recent teleconference with reporters to talk about the fight. “It’s not a problem. I was in the gym every day. The layoff is not a problem for me because I’m always training.”

Adonis Stevenson-Thomas Williams Jr.
Where: Videotron Centre in Quebec City
When: Friday, 9 p.m. ET
TV: Spike
Perhaps the layoff clouded Stevenson’s memory because he actually only had two fights in 2015 as well as two in 2014. He did fight four times in 2013. That was the year he took the title off Chad Dawson by devastating first-round knockout in just 76 seconds.

Still, Stevenson, a Haiti native fighting out of his adopted hometown of Montreal, again reiterated his supposed busy 2015.

“I need to recover because in 2015 I fought like three or four times,” he said. “Everything is good now. I’m ready to fight. I don’t have injuries, so I’m ready now. Sometimes it’s good to recover, to take a break and come back stronger.”

Even when Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs) has fought he has not exactly been tested as he has been matched relatively softly during most of his title reign. His last three defenses have come against overmatched Dmitry Sukhotsky (fifth-round knockout) in 2014, faded former super middleweight titlist Sakio Bika (clear-cut unanimous decision) 15 months ago and journeyman Tommy Karpency (third-round knockout) in an epic mismatch in September.

“I know he’s hungry, but I’m the champ and I’m hungry too. I know he’ll be ready, so I’ll be ready for this fight.”
Adonis Stevenson
Williams (20-1, 14 KOs), a southpaw like Stevenson, brings something to the table those others did not — tremendous punching power, which he used to blast out contender Edwin Rodriguez in the second round on April 30 in what was an unofficial eliminator to earn the shot at Stevenson.

While Williams and Stevenson both have superb power, they are also viewed by many as having a shaky chin, which could make for a short, but fireworks-filled fight.

“I know he’s hungry, but I’m the champ and I’m hungry too,” Stevenson said. “I know he’ll be ready, so I’ll be ready for this fight. (Friday) will be awesome and it will also be my daughter’s birthday. Williams is a puncher and a good opponent.”

Stevenson and Williams were each knocked out in their only defeat. Stevenson was stopped on his feet in the second round by journeyman Darnell Boone in 2010 and Williams got knocked out by former world titleholder Gabriel Campillo in the fifth round in August 2014. Williams has also been visibly hurt multiple times, including against Rodriguez.
Thomas Williams Jr., left, can take the light heavyweight championship if he beats Adonis Stevenson on Friday. Jae C. Hong/AP
Williams, 28, of Fort Washington, Maryland, said he knows what he is getting into against Stevenson.

“Adonis is the WBC champion and a strong puncher,” Williams said. “He beat everybody he had in front of him, but he has a real test (on Friday). Each time I fight, there are fireworks.”

Williams dismissed his fifth-round knockout loss to Campillo.

“If you watch this bout (against Campillo), I was winning before the stoppage,” Williams said. “And I improved a lot since. Look, this is a fight. It does not matter if Adonis has a bigger reach than me. Mike Tyson had less reach than most of his opponents.”

Williams also said he has not fear of fighting on Stevenson’s turf. In fact, he rather likes Canada.

“Adonis is the WBC champion and a strong puncher. He beat everybody he had in front of him, but he has a real test (on Friday). Each time I fight, there are fireworks.”
Thomas Williams Jr.
“It won’t be a distraction,” Williams said. “When you’re focused, you’re focused. It won’t be a problem. Canada is nice. When I came to Canada for the press conference, I received a good welcome. People were friendly. I thought a lot of people in Canada like Adonis Stevenson because he’s from there, but a lot of people were telling me knock this guy out. I don’t even know why they were telling me this.”

Should Stevenson retain the title he said once again that he wants to fight the winner of the fight between unified titleholder Sergey Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) and former super middleweight champion Andre Ward (29-0, 15 KOs), who are due to meet on Nov. 19 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas — as long as Ward comes through a tune-up fight against Alexander Brand (25-1, 19 KOs) on Aug. 6.
“First of all, we will see if they will fight and if it’s true or not. If the fight is going to happen — we don’t know that,” Stevenson said. “It’s (scheduled) for November but you don’t know if the fight is going to happen because Andre Ward has a fight on Aug. 6, so we’ll see after that. I will wait to see if it happens for real to predict a winner.

“Of course I need the winner of that fight. I’m the lineal champion. I need all the titles. This is my goal, but I have to focus on Thomas Williams first.”

Of course, Stevenson has routinely said he wants to unify titles against Kovalev but his actions have spoken louder than his words. He is the one who walked away from a deal for the fight that was agreed to in 2014, a move that resulted in an avalanche of criticism, and done his best to avoid the fight while facing subpar opposition.

In the 10-round co-feature, light heavyweight Eleider “Storm” Alvarez (19-0, 10 KOs), 32, the Colombia-born, Montreal-based mandatory challenger for the winner of the main event, will face New Zealand’s Robert Berridge (27-4-1, 21 KOs), a 31-year-old southpaw who took the fight on short notice when former world champion Chad Dawson dropped out because he suffered a shoulder injury while training last week.

The fight is contracted at a catch weight of 180 pounds. If Alvarez wins, his world title shot should come before the end of the year and would be a major event if he faces Stevenson in Montreal.