By Steve Kim
During his run on HBO, Sergey Kovalev has been a bit of a globetrotter having performed in the U.K. and Canada (twice) while Main Events has attempted to build a home base for him in Atlantic City - a city that has been struggling economically. With that, a decision has been made to head west with Kovalev.
His upcoming bout on July 25th against his IBF mandatory, Nadjib Mohemmedi, will take place at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Kathy Duva, the head of Main Events, believes that Las Vegas will need attractions as the likes of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao head into the very twilight of their careers.
Duva told BoxingScene.com over the weekend:
"It's hard to say you're going to count on something happening because dates and buildings aren't always attainable on the day you want them but we looked down the road at some of the big fights that could happen for him and it kind of made sense and he did move to the West Coast so this is where he is and you see the groundswell of support of fans that live out in the west and he's very popular there."
On Saturday night, Kovalev and his crew were at the Gennady Golovkin fight at the Forum. Duva states - "It took twenty minutes to just walk from ringside to the parking lot the other night. He was mobbed, they were chasing him to his car. It sort of makes sense to take advantage of that opportunity and we know that an Andre Ward fight is likely to occur, that would be the logical place to put that. (Las Vegas) is the fight capital of the world, all the very biggest fights tend to happen there, the majority of them.
"So we want to be where the biggest fights are. He wants to be in the biggest fights."
Back on the weekend of the of Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, Duva met with Richard Sturm, the President of MGM Entertainment and Sports (the MGM Grand owns the Mandalay Bay). According to her - "It was an incredible meeting. I went in there and I'm thinking I'll feel him out, put Sergey on the radar. The second I said why I was there, (Sturm) said,'I'm so glad you came. I'm such a big fan of his. Absolutely, he's the type of guy we want in our casino.'
"He also mentioned that they're building a casino in Russia and down the road this is something that plays into those plans. It all makes sense."
Duva also made it clear that other venues on the west coast, such as the StubHub Center, will be in consideration to host Kovalev fights in the future.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.