Adonis Stevenson To Fight Badou Jack, Leaving Eleider Alvarez To Fight For Interim WBC Title
WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson will once again get to fight somebody other than long-time mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez.
Alvarez signed another step-aside deal to allow Stevenson to fight former WBA “regular” light heavyweight champion Badou Jack and the WBC will now have a four-man tournament with the winner being the WBC champion. Alvarez won’t be left without an opponent, however. Alvarez has been ordered to fight NABF light heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk, who is the WBC’s No. 2 boxer at light heavyweight, for the now-vacant WBC interim light heavyweight title.
Stevenson vs. Jack will take place in early 2018 and the winner of that fight will take on the winner of Alvarez vs. Gvozdyk to unify the world title and interim title.
Alvarez has been Stevenson’s mandatory challenger since a majority decision win over Isaac Chilemba in November 2015 but has fought four times since awaiting the title shot. Stevenson was also ordered to fight then-unified world champion Sergey Kovalev, but that fight never materialized.
Jack won the WBA title back in August when he beat Nathan Cleverly on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor pay-per-view card. He vacated the title earlier this year after opting to not fight Dmitry Bivol, instead only saying that he has a big fight coming his way soon.
Stevenson has held the WBC title since 2013, making eight successful defenses of the title against notable names such as Tony Bellew and Andrzej Fonfara on two separate occasions.
