Adonis Stevenson shows little interest in title bout with Jean Pascal
Adonis Stevenson becomes harder to figure out with each passing day.
The WBC light heavyweight champion, who has essentially dodged fights with WBO champion Sergey Kovalev and IBF/WBA champion Bernard Hopkins, also isn't showing much interest in making what would be a significant fight with former champion Jean Pascal.
Greg Leon, the CEO of Pascal Promotions, told Yahoo Sports he's offered Stevenson's camp a 50-50 split in a fight at the Bell Centre in Montreal between the two Montreal-based fighters. Pascal, who is ranked No. 1 at light heavyweight by both the IBF and the WBC, is coming off a dominant win over Lucian Bute.
Bute is the other Montreal-based light heavyweight, but he was the biggest star of the three, attracting massive crowds throughout Quebec. He gave Pascal a 50-50 split for their bout, with each man making $2 million for a bout which drew 20,479.
Pascal, who has faced a series of big-name opponents, including Hopkins twice, Chad Dawson and Carl Froch, is considered a bigger draw in Quebec than Stevenson.
But Stevenson's team declined the 50-50 purse split and is looking for someone else. Pascal was going to fight Tavoris Cloud, whom Stevenson easily defeated, on Sept. 27 until a split with promoter Yvon Michel. Stevenson is still promoted by Michel.
"I don't get it," Leon said. "A fight with Pascal is a fight that would have made Stevenson box office, and it's a fight that he would have been favored to win, and 50-50 wasn't good enough to get it done? It doesn't make sense to me."
It doesn't make sense to many. There are so many good fights out there for Stevenson. Hopefully, he'll wind up in one of them sooner or later.
