Duva on Why Chilemba Isn’t Facing Kovalev This Saturday

by David P. Greisman

Light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev isn’t the only 175-pounder signed with promoter Main Events and fighting this Saturday at the Revel Atlantic City resort and casino in New Jersey.

Isaac Chilemba, who is 22-2-2 with 9 KOs and coming off a March decision win over Denis Grachev, will face Cory Cummings on the undercard. Cummings is 17-6-1 with 13 KOs.

One reason why Kovalev is facing Blake Caparello instead of Chilemba is because this Saturday’s HBO broadcast is one that wasn’t initially planned for, according to Kathy Duva of Main Events. The hope had been that Kovalev’s March win over Cedric Agnew would then lead into a fall fight with light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson.

“This was a summer fight that was added to the schedule; it hadn’t been anticipated,” Duva said. “Sometimes you have to work within the budget you have, and we spoke to Isaac’s people and I told them, ‘I can’t pay you enough to make this fight worthwhile. They wanted to take it. And I said, ‘No, no, you’re going to be able to make more money if you’ll just be a little more patient.’

“Our job is to make the best fights. Our job is also to represent our fighters. And I have to give the best advice to each fighter based on the situation they’re in. We are looking down the road, and I would say by early next year we’re going to have Isaac in a position with a couple of different options. And he’ll be in a position where I think he can better enhance his career by following a slightly different plan.”

Duva declined to delve deeper into that.

“We’re just going to keep that to ourselves for the time being,” she said.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com