By Edward Chaykovsky
WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (28-1, 23KOs) is hoping to get in the ring with the winner of next week's showdown between IBF/WBO/WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev and Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward.
Kovalev (30-0, 26KOs) vs. Ward (30-0, 15KOs) takes place on November 19th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Stevenson is due to return in the first quarter of 2017 with a mandatory defense against Eleider Alvarez (20-0), who takes a tuneup fight next month.
There were discussions in the past to make a fight between Stevenson and Kovalev, but they always fell apart over the television rights. Kovalev has a contract with HBO, while Stevenson is aligned with Showtime and Premier Boxing Champions.
The World Boxing Council ordered Stevenson and Kovalev to fight and even scheduled a purse bid. The discussions fell apart when Kovalev walked away from the purse bid, as his team believed Stevenson's side would likely win and select a PBC based channel to carry the fight - but Kovalev would be unable to fight outside of HBO and that's where the problem came in.
As the lineal world champion of the division, Stevenson believes the Kovalev-Ward winner will have to go through him to rule the division.
"Well, you know Andre Ward is fighting Sergey Kovalev on November 19, and I would like to fight the winner and unify the title. I’m the lineal [175-pound] champion, so everything has to go through me. I need all of the titles, so it’s time to make that fight happen," Stevenson told Premier Boxing Champions.
"I think Ward versus Kovalev is a 50-50 fight, so I’m not sure who wins. But the fans want to know who the best light heavyweight champion is, and whether it’s Ward or Kovalev, I know I will win that fight."
