By Rick Reeno

Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas - WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (24-1, 20KOs) is going to defend his title on Friday night against Dmitry Sukhotsky (22-2, 16KOs), but he'll be forced to take a much tougher challenge in 2015.

The World Boxing Council has ordered that Stevenson will have to face the winner of the March 17th clash between WBO/IBF/WBA champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23KOs) and WBC Diamond champion Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17KOs).

There will be a lot to get done before that can happen.

Kovalve's promoter Kathy Duva of Main Events revealed that Kovalev-Pascal will take place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. The winner of that fight will have to satisfy an IBF mandatory defense against Nadjib Mohammedi in May or June, and during that period Stevenson (should he win on Friday) will get the opportunity to have a voluntary defense.

More importantly, the terms - if Stevenson vs. Kovalv or Pascal goes to a purse bid - will be under the terms of a 50-50 split, per the ruling of the WBC.