Boxing Scene - By Ryan Burton
BoxingScene.com and ATG Radio teamed up earlier this week to speak to WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (29-1) who takes on former two-division champion Badou Jack (22-1-2) on May 19th likely at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
The fight will be televised in the United States by Showtime.
Jack and Stevenson recently traded words on social media but Adonis took the insults in stride. He said it is one thing to fight with words and an entirely different animal when you fight in the ring.
"You know all of the fighters talk trash," Stevenson said with a laugh.
"As soon as he gets in the ring with me it is different. I said to Badou Jack that I am going to knock him out. You know me, I am from the Kronk Gym and at the Kronk Gym we train for the knockout. I am looking for the knockout. This is what I always do. I am not going to change nothing and I am looking for the knockout. It is very good that he is looking looking for the knockout too. It is exciting but the difference is I am an artist. I am a knockout artist and that is a big difference," Stevenson explained.
The 40-year-old Quebec resident said that he doesn't spend much time studying his opponents and let's his trainer handle that. His trainer is Emanuel Steward's nephew Javan "Sugar" Hill who is very familiar with Jack having been in the opposite corner of Jack when he faced Flint, Michigan native Anthony Dirrell in 2015.
"Sugar Hill knows Badou Jack very well. I don't need to worry about that. Sugar Hill will take care of it. Badou Jack fought Anthony Dirrell. He knows him very well. I will do the same training that I always do. I am not going to change nothing. He is going to change but I won't change nothing because I will be going for the knockout. I love knockouts. They are exciting and Emanuel Steward always told me that knockouts sell and that is what I am going to do. Don't blink. It is very important that you don't blink," Stevenson stated.
Stevenson-Jack will be part of a Showtime split site doubleheader. Keith Thurman will headline the other co-feature bout at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn against an opponent to be determined.
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