Since his punishing win over Tony Bellew in November, rumours have filled the boxing pages of a potential clash with WBO king Sergey Kovalev, although hopes that the fight would be made for the summer where dashed once Stevenson signed with Al Haymon.
Linking with Haymon inevitably meant a move from HBO to Showtime for Stevenson, who then scouted around for a stellar name for his debut on the network and finally settled for the highly-ranked Chicago-based Pole.
Fonfara, 26, having lost twice in his career, is currently undefeated in the last six years and Stevenson believes that his faces a tough test on May 25 against the former IBO title holder.
“I am expecting Fonfara to come fighting like a warrior,” Stevenson told World Boxing News.
“I know he has good power, so it will be spectacular and explosive. He is without a doubt the best challenger in the world, all associations included.”
As talk of a big-hitting Kovalev battle subsided, IBF champion Bernard Hopkins put himself in the frame once he added the WBA belt against Beibut Shumenov on Showtime just over a week ago, with Stevenson admitting that he was pleased to be mentioned in the self-styled ‘Alien’s’ post-fight comments.
“I was flattered that he too is considering me as the number one light heavyweight in the world but, for now, I have business to take care of,” said Stevenson.
“Hopkins is a great legend of boxing and he was a master again in beating Shumenov. I have a lot of admiration for his accomplishments and he is a model for me and my career.
“I won’t look past Fonfara, but my goal is to unified all belts at some point,” he added.
After exploding onto the scene at 175 with his knockout win over Chad Dawson in June 2013, the long-time super-middleweight proved the he found moving up and making the transition to a higher-weight easy. When asked if another hike up the divisions to cruiserwieght was in his future, the 36 year-old emphatically ruled it out.
“A move to cruiserweight is not in my plans.”
Stevenson heads into his third defence of the green belt a heavy favourite to come away with the win, but with a defining night with Hopkins a big possibility in the fall, the heavy-handed southpaw can ill-afford any slip-up in front of his home fans next month.
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