(Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME)Adonis Stevenson won via a UD on Saturday night against Andrzej Fonfara but lost credibility as “The Superman”. Perhaps he did enough to win beyond doubt and he knocked down Fonfara twice but he struggled in the second half of bout and went down himself.
Fonfara is an unheralded and light punching prize fighter but he has several years of high level amateur experience as a cadet. Amateur boxing usually instills good technique and steady skills through methodical coaching. Fonfara showed resilience and good form which helped him to survive the initial onslaught and stand his ground in the second half of the bout.
More than fifty years ago Floyd Patterson fought Sonny Liston twice and got destroyed twice. Trainer Cus D’Amato didn’t want Floyd to fight Liston. He knew Floyd was intimidated by the Big Bear. Before Cassius Clay dethroned him, Liston was the most feared fighter around. Cus doubted whether Floyd could beat the Big Bear, and to make matters worse, Cus felt a loss would mean the most coveted championship in all of sport would fall into the hands of one of the most undesirable characters in the fight game. Liston was an ex-con and there were rumors about him being controlled by the mob. Their first fight took place at Comiskey Park in front of crowd of over 18,000 fight fans.
Light heavyweight contender Andrzej Fonfara (24-2, 14 KO’s) kept himself in position for a title shot by defeating 34-year-old veteran Gabriel Campillo (22-6-1, 9 KO’s) by a 9th round stoppage on Friday night at the U.S. Cellular Field, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Campillo was pretty much finished in the 8th round after getting hit with a right hand that hurt him by Fonfara.