Adonis Stevenson vs Tommy Karpency Preview September 11th
The Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) television series will head north of the border this weekend to Toronto, Canada’s biggest city. The main event will feature Haitian-born Quebecer Adonis “Superman” Stevenson defending his WBC Light Heavyweight title against American challenger Tommy Karpency on Friday, September 11, at Ricoh Coliseum. Fans in the U.S. can catch the fight live on Spike TV while Canadian fans need to cough up some cash for the pay-per-view broadcast.
Stevenson vs Karpency Betting Odds
Here are the winner odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Tommy Karpency +1300
- Adonis Stevenson -2600
My Pick
The 37-year-old Stevenson will climb into the ring with an impressive record of26-1 along with 21 Kos. The southpaw is regarded as one of the sport’s hardest hitters and his current knockout ratio stands at 78 per cent. This will be Stevenson’s sixth title defence. He also owns the linear light heavyweight crown as well as The Ring version. He’s not invincible though as he was knocked out by Darnell Boone in the second round back in April of 2010 in his only defeat.
The 29-year-old Tommy “Kryptonite” Karpency is also a southpaw who hails from Adah, Pennsylvania and sports a mark of 25-4-1 with 14 Kos to his name. Karpency made a name for himself back in October of 2014 when he beat former world champion Chad Dawson by a 10-round split decision at the Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Karpency is the current NABA-USA light heavyweight and Pennsylvania champion and is on a four-fight winning streak.
Karpency isn’t a power puncher by any stretch of the imagination and comes into the contest with a 47 per cent knockout ratio. He’s a few hairs short of 6-feet tall and has a 73-inch reach. Stevenson is half an inch shorter at 5-foot-11, but he has a four inch reach advantage with his 77-inch wingspan. Stevenson turned pro back in 2006 and has 122 rounds under his belt while Karpency has gone 149 rounds since 2006.
However, the quality of their opponents gives Stevenson a bit of an edge in experience. Along with beating Chad Dawson for the title in a matter of seconds in 2013, he’s also faced Etianne Whitaker, Marlon Hayes, Anthony Bonsante, Derek Edwards, Tavoris Cloud, Tony Bellew, Andrzej Fonfara, Dmitry Sukhotsky and Sakio Bika. Karpency has also faced Dawson Fonfara, and Whitaker as well as Nathan Cleverly and Karo Murat. He lost decisions to Murat and Cleverly and was stopped in the seventh round by Fonfara in 2012. His other defeat was to Rayco Saunders in 2008 and his draw came against Demetrius Davis the same year.
Karpency was given this title shot based on his win over Dawson and it’s basically a voluntary defence for the champion. He doesn’t see Karpency as a tough challenge and is treating it as a tune up fight for bigger names. However, Stevenson will have to fight the division’s top fighters sooner or later and he could be making a mistake be doing so later in his career as he’s already 37 years old.
Prediction……
Most fans and experts expect Stevenson to clock up another knockout against Karpency and he’ll likely do so by the sixth round. If Karpency wants to pull off an upset he needs to hit the champ hard, early and often and get some respect. There’s no point hanging around and taking punishment. I’d recommend Karpency to give it his all as early as possible since Stevenson can be hit. It’s unlikely Karpency has the power to stop him, so he’s going to have to start racking up points from the get-go.
The odds are about right on this one, with Stevenson the favourite and likely winner.
Play: Stevenson -2600 @ BetOnline.ag
Check out my recent boxing betting picks to see my current form.
Adonis Stevenson betting • Tommy Karpency betting