Oleksandr Gvozdyk, the former WBC light heavyweight champion, has named Adonis Stevenson as the hardest puncher he's faced in his career. This comes as a surprise, given that Gvozdyk has also been in the ring with power punchers Artur Beterbiev and David Benavidez.
Gvozdyk's career has seen its share of highs and lows. He won the WBC light heavyweight belt in December 2018, only to lose it 10 months later in a unification bout against Artur Beterbiev. After rebuilding with three straight wins, he faced David Benavidez in June for the interim WBC belt but came up short.
The Ukrainian boxer's fight with Beterbiev was a significant moment in his career. Beterbiev stopped Gvozdyk in the 10th round, handing him his first professional defeat and unifying the WBC and IBF titles.
More recently, Gvozdyk faced David Benavidez, who was moving up from super-middleweight. Benavidez controlled most of the action and won comfortably by unanimous decision.
Given these tough battles, it's surprising that Gvozdyk named neither Beterbiev nor Benavidez as the hardest puncher he's faced. Instead, in a recent interview with La Casaca Boxing Club, Gvozdyk revealed:
"When somebody asks me who was the hardest puncher you ever fought, I say Stevenson, not Beterbiev. I'm not saying that Beterbiev is weaker, and altogether he is way stronger, but regarding punching power, he doesn't have the explosiveness. He has heavy hands and likes pushing you and then when he throws two or three punches, you're taking a big toll from those punches, but he misses explosiveness. Stevenson has it."
Gvozdyk's fight with Stevenson took place at the Centre Videotron in Quebec City. Despite trailing on two of the three scorecards, Gvozdyk managed to secure an 11th round knockout victory.
The boxing world will continue to debate the merits of these power punchers. Meanwhile, there's talk of a potential future fight between Beterbiev and Benavidez, with top trainer Robert Garcia already making bold predictions about the outcome. Fans will certainly keep Gvozdyk's assessment in mind as they speculate on this potential matchup.
