Stevenson is facing who!!

[Cloutov]

Stevenson is facing Sakio Bika.. I like Bika but how can he be facing the 175 champion. I hope it is a stay active fight for the winner of Pascal-Kovalev.

[handsofstone]

Bika has a great chance off a KO..........if he catches Stevenson with his head

[koolkc107]

Stevenson is facing Sakio Bika.. I like Bika but how can he be facing the 175 champion. I hope it is a stay active fight for the winner of Pascal-Kovalev.

Another guy avoiding fights. Half of his division's top 10 has no one to fight but he needs to fight a guy a division lower who is coming off a clear loss to nowhere near the best of that lower division?

Forget Adonis, we should start calling this guy Adele...

[Impractical Poster]

I don't think it's a bad match-up. Win or lose, Stevenson will know he was in a fight come the next morning. Sakio is a technical brawler, and it will be interesting to see how Stevenson reacts after Sakio has taken his best shots and is still coming forward.

[crusader]

I don't think it's that bad of a match-up. Win or lose, Stevenson will know he was in a fight come the next morning.

I think it's fairly bad. Bika hasn't even beaten a fringe contender at 175, will be winless in nearly two years entering the bout and significantly out-sized (only campaigned at MW and SMW with few indications that he struggles to make the latter), looked poor in widely losing his last fight and mediocre before that in the first meeting with Dirrell, and shortly before those contests he was only just scraping by a tough but limited opponent in Periban who was outclassed by Degale (though an early stoppage imo), clearly lost to Love, and very arguably deserved to lose to Jack.

I don't think he's deserving of a title shot and I don't see this ending well for him.

[Impractical Poster]

I don't think it's that bad of a match-up. Win or lose, Stevenson will know he was in a fight come the next morning.

I think it's fairly bad. Bika hasn't even beaten a fringe contender at 175, will be winless in nearly two years entering the bout and significantly out-sized (only campaigned at MW and SMW with few indications that he struggles to make the latter), looked poor in widely losing his last fight and mediocre before that in the first meeting with Dirrell, and shortly before those contests he was only just scraping by a tough but limited opponent in Periban who was outclassed by Degale (though an early stoppage imo), clearly lost to Love, and very arguably deserved to lose to Jack.

I don't think he's deserving of a title shot and I don't see this ending well for him.

So be it. I'm still interested. I'm going with Stevenson, but I don't think it's as bad as some are making it out to be. He obviously doesn't deserve a shot at the title, but so is boxing.

[ReggieDiggs]

Bika obviously isn't THE fight for Adonis, but its a solid fight.

[crusader]

No shitt he isn't 'THE' fight for Adonis.

I don't see why it's even solid for the reasons I listed. Bika is an undersized opponent who doesn't have a decent win at the weight, won't have won a fight in nearly two years, and was last seen at 168 losing widely and unimpressively to a good but far from great opponent. He also tends to rely on being physically stronger than opponent, which will likely be much more difficult against bigger men, let alone those who are bigger, stronger, and more skilled. Bika seems to have a reputation as someone who would give anyone a tough night, but going by recent form I don't think he's what he once was, and I suspect that he gets dealt with fairly routinely by the LHW elite.

[ReggieDiggs]

No shitt he isn't 'THE' fight for Adonis.

I don't see why it's even solid for the reasons I listed. Bika is an undersized opponent who doesn't have a decent win at the weight, won't have won a fight in nearly two years, and was last seen at 168 losing widely and unimpressively to a good but far from great opponent. He seems to have a reputation as someone who would give anyone a tough night, but going by recent form I don't think he's what he once was, and I suspect that he gets dealt with fairly routinely by the LHW elite.

Eh the two years without a win sounds sh!tty I don't disagree with you there. Bika gots a solid lost to list is what I was mainly thinking of. I think just about everyone he's lost to is respectable &/or undefeated on top of it. And while he's not shown anything at 175, he's shown a solidness up til now that I'll find interesting vs a KOing mfer like Adonis. No mistake or misunderstanding its not a compelling fight for the future of 175 or anything.

[crusader]

Bika's done respectably against good opposition but he hasn't beaten one top opponent, his best work is at 168 and occurred years ago, and to me he's clearly shown signs of regression over his last four bouts, with his balance in particular looking very poor.

[Impractical Poster]

No shitt he isn't 'THE' fight for Adonis.

I don't see why it's even solid for the reasons I listed. Bika is an undersized opponent who doesn't have a decent win at the weight, won't have won a fight in nearly two years, and was last seen at 168 losing widely and unimpressively to a good but far from great opponent. He seems to have a reputation as someone who would give anyone a tough night, but going by recent form I don't think he's what he once was, and I suspect that he gets dealt with fairly routinely by the LHW elite.

Eh the two years without a win sounds sh!tty I don't disagree with you there. Bika gots a solid lost to list is what I was mainly thinking of. I think just about everyone he's lost to is respectable &/or undefeated on top of it. And while he's not shown anything at 175, he's shown a solidness up til now that I'll find interesting vs a KOing mfer like Adonis. No mistake or misunderstanding its not a compelling fight for the future of 175 or anything.

This is how I see it as well. I find it interesting. I am also interested to see if Bika will be able to bully Stevenson around. Just because Stevenson fights a division higher does not necessarily mean he is the stronger man. He may be. And can Bika take Stevenson's power and keep coming? These questions make it interesting enough for me to tune in.

[Impractical Poster]

Bika's done respectably against good opposition but he hasn't beaten one top opponent, his best work is at 168 and occurred years ago, and to me he's clearly shown signs of regression over his last four bouts, with his balance in particular looking very poor.

Well then, Stevenson should have an easy time with him. I'm intrigued to see.

[Blodhemn]

Yeah baby. That Haymon product is producing those fights that need to happen. This has fool me once written all over it. The mismatches continue.

[crusader]

Bika's done respectably against good opposition but he hasn't beaten one top opponent, his best work is at 168 and occurred years ago, and to me he's clearly shown signs of regression over his last four bouts, with his balance in particular looking very poor.

Well then, Stevenson should have an easy time with him. I'm intrigued to see.

He should and I suspect he will.

A career SMW who looked terrible in widely losing his last fight, won't have won in roughly two years, walks straight forward, isn't a puncher, and relies on out-muscling fighters significantly smaller than Stevenson seems tailor-made for the latter's combination of power and basic boxing skill, especially now that Bika's legs seem less under him with each fight and people like Dirrell are able to sting him multiple times and drop him.

[Blodhemn]

Yeah... Bika is getting slaughtered here. That's what the fans want though. Haymon taking ova.

[crusader]

It certainly seems to me like some people have become cheerleaders for certain promoters, managers, or advisers. It's not just about the fights and the fighters anymore, if it ever was.

[Impractical Poster]

Bika's done respectably against good opposition but he hasn't beaten one top opponent, his best work is at 168 and occurred years ago, and to me he's clearly shown signs of regression over his last four bouts, with his balance in particular looking very poor.

Well then, Stevenson should have an easy time with him. I'm intrigued to see.

He should and I suspect he will.

A career SMW who looked terrible in widely losing his last fight, won't have won in roughly two years, walks straight forward, isn't a puncher, and relies on out-muscling fighters significantly smaller than Stevenson seems tailor-made for the latter's combination of power and basic boxing skill, especially now that Bika's legs seem less under him with each fight and people like Dirrell are able to sting him multiple times and drop him.

I have a very high regard for Anthony Dirrell.

BTW, I am not picking Sakio. I just think he is going to be much more competitive than others think.

[Impractical Poster]

It certainly seems to me like some people have become cheerleaders for certain promoters, managers, or advisers. It's not just about the fights and the fighters anymore, if it ever was.

What do you mean?

[crusader]

How highly do you regard Marco Antonio Periban? Bika just squeaked by him and that was nearly two years ago....since then Periban has failed to beat any of the contenders he's faced and he was clearly outclassed in his last bout by James Degale.

By the last comment you quoted I mean that some posters (not you, although I think it applies to RG) have become cheerleaders for certain business figures in the way people often are for fighters. These people seem dedicated to defending those figures against criticism and promoting their endeavors as someone would do with a fighter they are fond of, and I've increasingly noticed that people are fans of people like Haymon or Hearn when that didn't seem as typical when I was posting several years back.

[ReggieDiggs]

It certainly seems to me like some people have become cheerleaders for certain promoters, managers, or advisers. It's not just about the fights and the fighters anymore, if it ever was.

I think many have found there are clicks in boxing unlike other professional sports & work within that logic. Some continue to act as if there are no barriers to any fight being made if they just wanna make it bad enough much to their continued unhappiness with the sport.

Would I love for any two guys to be able to fight each other? F#ck yea.

Is it a reality with the current power structure in the sport? F#ck no. Promoters have too much power to pigeonhole a guy into a certain "promotion"/"league" & re-sign them once they do fulfill their contract (look at Julio & Mikey sitting for a year over this silly ass sh!t).

Am I gonna bitch about it every day? F#ck no. Its the current reality like it or not.

[Oiky]

sakio bika is just all sorts of horrible to watch

[BAD INTENTIONS]

THIS FIGHT WILL BE ON CBS ... SO SHUT THE fornicate UP.

[handsofstone]

Sakio Bika is probably my least entertaining fighter,the first Dirrell fight was good but apart from that....

[ReggieDiggs]

THIS FIGHT WILL BE ON CBS ... SO SHUT THE eff UP.

lmfao.

"F#ck this, we don't want free fights"

It can be a lil ridiculous with all these free fights being sh!t on. Leave it to some boxing fans to hate....well everything basically &

[KBB]

Stevenson is facing Sakio Bika.. I like Bika but how can he be facing the 175 champion. I hope it is a stay active fight for the winner of Pascal-Kovalev.

Bika is going to get put to sleep in devastating fashion in this fight, Stevenson has too much discipline and too much power for the Wild Swinging Madman, sooner or later Sakio walks into something awesome and it is nite-nite time.

Bika will wind up looking like Manny Pacquiao did vs JMM fight 4 face first and kissing the dirt.