By Keith Idec
Sergey Kovalev’s promoter is hopeful her fighter will get another shot at Andre Ward sometime in April.
Kathy Duva, chief executive officer for New Jersey-based Main Events, told BoxingScene.com on Wednesday that HBO Sports has an April date for a pay-per-view card. Reliable pay-per-view numbers for Ward’s controversial victory over Kovalev on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena won’t be available until sometime next week.
Regardless, Ward (31-0, 15 KOs), the newly crowned IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight champion from Hayward, California, is contractually obligated to an immediate rematch with Russia’s Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs).
If Ward-Kovalev II isn’t scheduled for April, it likely would occur sometime in June or November. Duva emphasized that she wouldn’t want to wait an entire year for the mandated rematch.
Duva added that T-Mobile Arena, where a crowd of 13,310 assembled to watch Ward-Kovalev on Saturday night, Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center are potential venues for the rematch. New York has a large Russian population, but insurance issues there could prevent Duva’s company, Main Events, and Roc Nation Sports, Ward’s promoter, from bringing the event there.
Theoretically, the rematch could take place anywhere outside of California or Russia, both of which are prohibited in contracts signed last year by Ward and Kovalev.
HBO will replay Ward-Kovalev – an intriguing, physical fight Ward won by the same score, 114-113, on all three scorecards – on Saturday night at 10:35 p.m. ET. The replay will be followed by a live telecast of the Vasyl Lomachenko-Nicholas Walters super featherweight title fight from The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.