Stevenson, 22-1-0 (19 KOs), is the lineal light heavyweight champion, where Kovalev and Hopkins and others are title holders. He beat the man, who beat the man, who beat the man, etc. He is short and muscular for his class, and a late bloomer, with freakish power, and a 1905 Joe Walcott kind of counter-punching style. His father was killed in a karate tournament in his homeland of Haiti. His mamma must be biting her knuckles every time he gets into the ring, and she has probably already told him she’d stop frying plantains for him if he fought Kovalev. He’s a black Rocky Balboa, with a childlike innocence about him.

Bellew is mixed race British head case. He has campaigned as a heavyweight in the amateur ranks. I could definitely see this guy fighting bare-knuckle bouts behind a trailer. There had been a scuffle at the press conference, insults from Bellew, and it was all topped off by a cinematic stare-down.

Bellew played a cunning mouse-to-cat game, and would have won if this were a knife fight. Unfortunately, it was club fight, and Adonis had a nastier club. There was a brutal fifth round stoppage which was well-called, as Bellew was in lethal straits. Bellew was a tough crafty fighter who seemed to be executing a good plan to take Adonis deep and beat him down late. He just got caught.

Adonis is a strange egg to crack, and few fighters will face such a man. When they do they need to be crafty. He is a sneaky southpaw power hitter. He lays back on his rear leg, pawing with or dropping his right lead. He essentially has no right hand, as is the case with many southpaws, and seems to compound this problem by adopting a narrow guard and lining up his rear foot with his lead. He makes this work, however. Since his narrow guard makes him hard to hit he lures punchers and boxer in, and plasters them with a variety of sneaky rights, one of which delivers palm up like an uppercut. I think that whoever is training him is a big Archie Moore fan. Adonis fights like a mongoose, the vicious possum-like beast that kills cobras when they make their lethal lunge.

I see Adonis versus Kovalev as a potential fight of the year, possibly rivalry of the decade, if one is not destroyed the first time out.