By Steve Kim

WBO light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev (31-3-1, 27 KOs) faces Igor Mikhalkin at the Theater of New York's Madison Square Garden in what will be the main event on HBO this Saturday night.

On May 19th in Canada, WBC champion Adonis Stevenson will defend his belt against former super middleweight titlist Badou Jack, on Showtime.

Kovalev and Stevenson were seemingly on a collision course in 2014 before Stevenson signed on with adviser Al Haymon and joined the Premier Boxing Champions. Kovalev is a staple of HBO, which made a match-up with the two almost impossible to make.

So in 2018, would a unification bout between Kovalev and the winner of Stevenson-Jack be a non-starter given the politics involved?

"I don't think it should be a non-starter with Badou Jack,'' said Main Events CEO Kathy Duva, who promotes Kovalev, to BoxingScene.com.

"I don't see why it would be. As far as Stevenson is concerned my belief if he just doesn't want to fight Sergey. I don't think it has anything to do with network alliances. That's a load of crap, I call BS on that because the fact is he had gone a period of close to three years without fighting on Showtime. I mean, that's not the problem."

There's no doubt who Duva is pulling for in this contest.

"Sooner or later, this guy is winding his way to 41, he's going to lose a fight to somebody, maybe it will be Jack," she said with a chuckle.

"We wish Jack all the best, he gets that WBC title and becomes the linear champion, I believe he will have an obligation to fight Oleksandr Gvozdyk next.

"But we would certainly be very willing to talk to them about perhaps doing a unification first and fighting Sergey."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.