LOS ANGELES: Cameroon-born Australian Sakio Bika will challenge World Boxing Council light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson on April 4 at Quebec City, organizers said Tuesday as part of several fight scheduling announcements.
Haitian-born Canadian Stevenson, 25-1 with 21 knockouts, has won his past 12 fights over five years with only one of those victories going the distance.
Stevenson will be defending his crown for the fifth time since taking the title with a first-round knockout of Chad Dawson in 2013. But the 37-year-old southpaw has fought outside the province of Quebec only once since a 2010 knockout loss in the United States to Darnell Boone, a defeat Stevenson avenged in 2013.
Bika, 35, is 32-6 with three drawn and 21 knockouts. He steps up from super middleweight after winning that division's WBC crown in 2013 but losing it last August to unbeaten American Anthony Dirrell.
Other main events announced by Showtime and CBS included WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez, a Mexican who is 57-8 with 48 knockouts, making his third title defense on March 28 against American Gary Russell Jnr., 25-1 with 14 knockouts.
Showtime, which has two fights remaining on a deal with unbeaten Floyd Mayweather, said the welterweight star will enter the ring again on May 2 but did not say against whom. Talks have been ongoing for a long-sought showdown with Filipino star Manny Pacquiao but Mayweather said Sunday no deal has been completed and those talks included several possible dates.
Former world middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr of Mexico, 48-1-1 with 32 knockouts, will fight Polish light-heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara, 26-3 with 15 knockouts, on April 18.
Britain's Ricky Burns, a 31-year-old Scotsman who is 37-4 with one drawn and 11 knockouts, will face unbeaten American Omar Figueroa, 24-0 with one drawn and 18 knockouts on May 9. Figueroa vacated the WBC lightweight crown to move up to super lightweight.
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