By Bill "Two Scoops" Emes
Now that a unification with Adonis Stevenson is looking more and more unlikely, WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21KOs) will have to focus on building up another high profile fight - and that fight may come against WBA super middleweight king Andre Ward (27-0, 14KOs).
For the better part of 2013, HBO was building a Kovalev-Stevenson unification by showcasing both boxers on their network. On Tuesday the highly anticipated showdown took a turn for the worse, when it was revealed that Stevenson's next fight, against Andrzej Fonfara on May 24th, was snatched up by rival network Showtime. And now it appears Stevenson is moving in the direction of a unification with IBF champion Bernard Hopkins, who also fights on Showtime.
Ward is currently dealing with promotional issues, but he doesn't have a lot of high profile options on HBO. While the fight is not even close to happening, Duva indicates that Ward will have to come up to 175-pounds. Kovalev, unlike Chad Dawson, is not going down to 168 or meeting at a catch-weight.
"I think that down the road a showdown between Kovalev and Andre Ward is inevitable....down the road. Not gonna happen at 168. Not gonna happen at a catch-weight. But it's gonna happen someday," Duva told BoxingScene.com.
Kovalev returns to HBO on Saturday night against undefeated Cedric Agnew in Atlantic City.