Dominant Stevenson beats Bika
WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (26-1, 21 KOs) defeated Sakio Bika (32-7-3, 21 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Stevenson overpowered Bika throughout the bout, knocking the challenger down twice en route to winning by scores of 116-110, 115-111 and 115-110.
Although the Haiti-born Stevenson, who is now based in Montreal, was not able to gain a trademark knockout, his power was evident early when he rocked Bika with a left hand in the second round. A shot he would land time and time again as the fight progressed.
In the fifth round, southpaw Stevenson, 37, appeared to drop the 35 year-old Bika, a native of Cameroon, living in Australia, but he grabbed on to Stevenson and they both tumbled to the canvas. Referee Michael Griffin ruled it a slip.
A left hook put Bika on the canvas in the sixth round but the challenger returned quickly to his feet and did not appear to be badly hurt.
However, Bika, who moved up from super middleweight and was competing at 175 pounds for the first time, had no answer to the punches coming his way and the power in Stevenson’s left hand was displayed again when that punch sent Bika down once more before the end of the ninth round.
The champion remained in total command although an accidental head-butt in the final seconds of the bout opened a cut over his right eye.
Stevenson successfully defended his title for the fifth time and a unification bout with IBF, WBA, and WBO champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) could be next. Normally, sanctioning bodies do not rank champions from other organisations, but the WBC made the unusual move of making Kovalev the mandatory challenger for its belt because they want to see the biggest fight in the 175-pound division.
Also on the card, light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (8-0, 8 KOs) destroyed former world champion Gabriel Campillo (25-7-1, 12 KOs) of Spain, scoring a KO in the fourth round.
Montreal-based Russian Beterbiev unloaded some hard shots that sent southpaw Campillo to the canvas midway through the first round.
Beterbiev then finished Campillo off in the fourth round with a combination that put him down again. This time, the referee did not bother to count and stopped the fight at 2:22 of the round.