By Keith Idec
The light heavyweight title bout between Sergey Kovalev and Anthony Yarde will not take place June 29.
Multiple sources informed BoxingScene.com on Thursday that the Russian investors providing funding to bring Kovalev-Yarde to Kovalev’s home country would prefer to stage the fight sometime in August. They still want to bring the bout to the 8,000-seat arena in Kovalev’s hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia.
That’ll depend on Frank Warren, Yarde’s promoter, and England’s Yarde again agreeing to travel to Russia for Yarde’s mandated shot at Kovalev’s WBO 175-pound championship. Warren could force a purse bid, a procedure they avoided at the 11th hour when they agreed to terms for a June 29 bout.
Warren recently offered to add Kovalev-Yarde to the July 13 card his company will stage at O2 Arena in London, but Kovalev did not want to fight Yarde in the challenger’s home country. That July 13 show will feature heavyweights Daniel Dubois and Nathan Gorman in the main event, as well as heavyweight Joe Joyce.
Yarde has accepted what would be a career-high, seven-figure purse to travel to Russia to challenge Kovalev. Both Kovalev, 36, and Yarde, 27, have been training to fight June 29, but the card they were supposed to headline never was officially announced.
The uncertainty prompted Warren to publicly question in recent weeks whether the fight would come off June 29.
Whenever Kovalev and Yarde meet, ESPN will stream their scheduled 12-round fight in the United States through its ESPN+ service and BT Sport will offer it in the United Kingdom. ESPN has options on Kovalev as part of the deal promoter Bob Arum made with Kovalev and his promoter, Kathy Duva, to stream his immediate rematch with Eleider Alvarez.
Kovalev (33-3-1, 28 KOs) out-boxed Colombia’s Alvarez (24-1, 12 KOs) in their 12-round rematch to win back his title February 2 in Frisco, Texas. Alvarez knocked out Kovalev in the seventh round of their first fight to win the WBO championship from him August 4 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The hard-hitting Yarde (18-0, 17 KOs) is the WBO’s No. 1 challenger for Kovalev’s title, but he has not beaten a top light heavyweight during his ascent to the top of its 175-pound ratings.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
