By Ryan Burton

On Saturday evening Adonis Stevenson will face Tavoris Cloud which will be the first defense of the WBC light heavyweight title that he won against Chad Dawson in June. If Stevenson is successful, the plan is for him to face his mandatory challenger Tony Bellew before the year is out. That would mean three fights in a span of about six months which suits Stevenson just fine.

"I am very happy that I have had a busy schedule. I just fought Chad Dawson in June so I am still in shape. I never stopped training so I don't see how Cloud is going to beat me. I am still in shape and I am always training," Stevenson stated.

A fight between Stevenson and fellow power puncher is Sergey Kovalev is a match up that has many fight fans salivating. Stevenson said that he has no problem facing Kovalev but said that the Russian needs a signature win first.

"I would like to fight him but he needs to build his name up. He needs to fight a good opponent and not just any opponent. You see that I have Chad Dawson who is the linear light heavyweight champion and now I fight Tavoris Cloud who is the former IBF champion. I think Kovalev needs to fight someone like that first," Kovalev told BoxingScene.com.

I asked Stevenson what he thought about Kovalev's last opponent Nathan Cleverly. Kovalev captured the WBO light heavyweight title when he stopped the Welshman in four rounds in their August meeting.

"Nathan Cleverly? Who did did he fight? He just fights in England and he's a decent fighter but he just fights decent fighters. He steps up and takes one test against Kovalev and you see what happened," Stevenson explained.

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