Is Kathy Duva Right About Adonis Stevenson?

Will we ever know the answer? 

So sure, Adonis Stevenson won against Sakio Bika in Canada this weekend in dominant fashion. Take nothing from "Superman." The guy's good. He's strong, he hits hard, he's certainly not slow and he knows how to control the ring.

Just how good is he, however?

Kathy Duva has made it clear that she thinks Stevenson's not all that great, that he's apt to lose sooner or later, be it against her fighter Sergey Kovalev or against another, less heralded opponent. Could this be true?

Let's think about that.

Stevenson, after all, tends to get hit. Sure, Kovalev gets hit, too, but not like Stevenson does. Bika walloped him on numerous occasions, after all. Indeed, it was hard not to imagine how things would have turned out had it been Kovalev - or even Jean Pascal - firing those rights at Stevenson this weekend.

On the other hand, Stevenson does have that incredible power. It's hard to forget about what he did to Chad Dawson a while back, actually. It's also good to keep in mind that Stevenson has battled the likes of Travoris Cloud and Tony Bellew, as well. Those guys weren't exactly jokes.

Yet it's hard to get over the fact that Stevenson had such a hard time last year against Andrzej Fonfara. It's also worth noting that Stevenson looked like he might be running out of fuel a few times this weekend against Bika. The look on a fighter's face in the heat of combat can be a very easy thing to read.

So, is Duva right? Is Stevenson just not as great as he's been cracked up to be?

Perhaps we should take Kovalev out of the equation entirely in order to figure this one out. Kovalev, after all, appears at least to be on his way to becoming an all time great. Although I'm sure there are some who would favor Stevenson should the two ever meet, the odds not would most likely be in Kovalev's favor.

Let's forget about Kovalev for a moment, then. What kind of champion would Stevenson be considered if Kovalev had decided to attend medical school rather than the University of John David Jackson? How would he hold up against the Pascals, and Hopkins of the division?

The truth is, we don't know because he's never fought any of those guys. Never mind how good Stevenson looks stacked up against Kovalev. No one knows how good he looks stacked up against the other top names in his division.

Only Stevenson himself can prove Duva wrong. The question now is - does he want to?