By Edward Chaykovsky
On Friday night in Toronto, WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs) drilled overmatched Tommy Karpency (25-5-1, 14 KOs) in three rounds at the Ricoh Coliseum.
After the match was over, Stevenson called for a unification with WBO/IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25KOs).
Stevenson baited Kovalev by discussing, during the televised Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV interview, that his promoter, Main Events, walked away from a mandatory WBC purse bid earlier this year.
Kovalev took to the social networks to erupt over the challenge.
"I got your call Adonis "Piece of Sh*t" Chickenson. I'm ready to fight and kick your ass already long time ago!!! Let's do it ASAP. Adonis "Piece of shit" Chickenson got his next win today with very easy opponent. Congrats you chicken!!," Kovalev wrote.
Last December at the World Boxing Council's annual convention, Main Events - even though Kovalev was the reigning champion of three rival organizations - demanding a mandatory shot at Stevenson. The WBC approved the request and issued an order for the fight.
Stevenson's team made an unexpected move and pushed for a purse bid date. Kovalev's promoter, due to their exclusive television deal with HBO, withdrew from the purse bid in fear or losing and then being forced to head to Premier Boxing Champions or Showtime.
Main Events is offering a 50-50 split on HBO Pay-Per-View. Unlikely Stevenson will accept that deal. With the deep pockets of PBC, they can offer Kovalev more money to fight on their platform than Kovalev's promoter can offer Stevenson to fight on any HBO setup.
The WBC has once again placed Kovalev in a mandatory spot, but that maneuver is probably not going to remedy the situation.
