By Steve Kim

Sergey Kovalev - who on Saturday night dispatched Nadjib Mohemmedi in three round at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas - is the owner of the IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight titles. But he's made it clear that he still yearns for the WBC strap, which is currently held by Adonis Stevenson. So what are the chances of them unifying the 175-pound class anytime soon?

In the last year or so both Kovalev and Stevenson have walked away from the potential bout for various reasons, mostly having to do with the fractured nature of the business. While Stevenson is under the auspices of Al Haymon and the Premier Boxing Champions universe, Kovalev just recently signed an exclusive multi-fight pact with HBO.

The two worlds do not intersect.

Earlier this year Main Events dropped out a purse bid for this fight for fear of alienating HBO and having to do this fight on another platform.

So is there any chance of another purse bid for this match-up?

Kathy Duva, the head of Main Events said flatly the post-fight press conference on Saturday night - "That's not going to happen. We asked to be the mandatory, we sincerely hoped to have made the fight. It was not possible to make a voluntary deal. They pushed the purse bid way ahead of schedule, refused to negotiate and then managed to turn it around and take the position we were running away. We were not going to destroy our relationship with HBO over a fight that might not even happen.

"So if they want to fight Sergey, at the moment there's an offer on the table, 50-50, we'll got to Canada. But as (Kovalev) grows, becomes better and becomes more and more dominant, that offer is not going to be on the table forever."

Stevenson is slated to fight again in September, while Duva announced that Kovalev's next outing will be in Russia on Thanksgiving weekend.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.