By Keith Idec
Kathy Duva expressed her disappointment Wednesday to fellow promoter Yvon Michel regarding his decision to pass on her offer for his undefeated fighter, Artur Beterbiev, to challenge Sergey Kovalev, the unbeaten light heavyweight champion her company promotes.
Duva made what she and Michel agree was a fair offer for a light heavyweight title bout between the Russian knockout artists, which would’ve taken place Nov. 28 in Russia. Michel publicly expressed interest in the fight last week, despite that Beterbiev is managed by Al Haymon.
Executives for HBO Sports, which no longer does business with Haymon-managed fighters, encouraged Duva to pursue Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KOs) as Kovalev’s next opponent and were willing to make an exception in order to televise Kovalev-Beterbiev. HBO has an exclusive contract with Duva’s Main Events and Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs), whom Beterbiev beat in an amateur match, to televise his fights.
Michel instead decided to pursue an IBF-mandated elimination match that could pit Beterbiev against former light heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins, the 50-year-old legend Kovalev dominated Nov. 8 in Atlantic City.
Below is what Duva wrote in a letter to Michel, a copy of which was obtained by BoxingScene.com, once he turned down her offer for the Kovalev-Beterbiev fight:
You told the media that Beterbiev would take this fight if our offer was fair, which it clearly was. Sergey and I are quite disappointed that you have turned it down without even making a counter-offer. Sergey was in a similar position in 2013: After he won an eliminator to face Bernard Hopkins for the IBF title, he was offered a fight against Nathan Cleverly for the WBO championship immediately. Though a Hopkins fight would have been more lucrative, Sergey would have had to wait for months, during which anything could happen. Without a moment’s hesitation Sergey chose to take the immediate, guaranteed title shot in his opponent’s backyard.
Of course, Sergey went on to fight Hopkins and unify three light heavyweight belts in a major promotion. As you, yourself, said to a reporter last week, when you get your first title shot, you take it. You say that you want to bury the hatchet [over the ill-fated Kovalev-Adonis Stevenson negotiations, purse bid, etc.], but actions speak louder than words. It seems that you would rather posture and look for purse bids rather than actually make a fight. I hope that I am wrong and you will prove it by at least attempting to negotiate a fight, whether it be for Kovalev to fight Stevenson or Beterbiev. After all, Sergey is the only one contractually bound to a TV network [HBO] and you have never once made an offer to me to make either of these fights that the fans so want to see.
In the meantime, we will continue to make fights for Sergey against the best fighters who are actually willing to face him. As his star continues to rise, the terms I have offered to you for Beterbiev and Stevenson will not be open for long.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.