Light heavyweight alphabet titlist Adonis Stevenson (26-1) put his belt on the line against gritty American challenger Tommy Karpency (25-4-1) last night. Karpency failed in his bid to play kryptonite to ‘Superman’, and was out-classed by the stronger and quicker Stevenson.
In the first round, Stevenson began his onslaught with a left that buckled Karpency’s legs. A straight left at the end of round two knocked Karpency to his knees. With a boisterous partisan crowd behind him, Stevenson finished Karpency off with a devastating TKO at 21 seconds of round three.
A jubilant Stevenson chanted “Oh Canada!!” before calling out light heavyweight champion Sergei Kovalev, saying “C’mon Kovalev – it’s time to fight for the unified title.”
In the co-feature, Errol Spence Jr. (17-0) put his unblemished record on the line in the opening bout of the main card against the dangerous South African welterweight Chris Van Heerden (23-1-1) riding an 9-fight winning streak.
Spence, a 2012 Olympian, showed his pedigree by pounding his opponent with brutal body shots and a flurry of jabs that nearly closed Van Heerden’s left eye. After two knockdowns in the 7th round, Spence’s dominating performance was punctuated by a flurry of punches that led referee Alan Huggins to stop the fight at 50 seconds of round 8.
Spence will now set his sights on moving up the ladder in the talented welterweight division occupied by big names such as Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.
When asked in the ring what is next for him he responded “I want to fight anyone in the top 10- I think I deserve it.”
