By Steve Kim
What was supposed to be the formal announcement of the November 19th showdown between unified light heavyweight champion, Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward, at the Target Terrace at LA Live, instead became a rather bizarre scene where it was revealed that the two promotional sides (Main Events and Roc Nation Sports) still have not agreed to all the terms - most notably the venue for this fight.
So will there be a fight between the two?
"There will be a fight if Andre Ward wants to have a fight but I can't promise you at this point what they want,"said Kathy Duva, the head of Main Events. Ward who fought this past weekend against Alexander Brand in Oakland, was not present at this function.
It seems as though the biggest issue is the venue for this fight. It was believed that Kovalev-Ward would be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Duva stated - "Well, Dave Itskowitch, who worked for Roc Nation at the time and I made a deal with the MGM (Properties) - we had a deal. The on-sale should've happened now. They were saying we need signed contracts, blah, blah, I don't think I've ever done a fight where contracts with an arena were signed before they went on sale. But it seems that every day it's something so I have to assume that either we'll resolve this or we wont."
And there's also this issue - "My fear is of course, Bob Arum wants to do a fight in Las Vegas on November 5th (which will feature Manny Pacquiao) and he wants the November 19th date and if we lose our venue on the 19th my fear is that we'll lose this date and I hope that doesn't happen."
The good news is that its still early August but there is a sense of urgency to get this promotion going. When asked when they might have a resolution, Duva told BoxingScene.com:
"I really can't give you a day, I really do hope we can work out our differences. As for as I'm concerned we do have an agreement with MGM and we plan to live up to it. What Roc Nation decides to do...I think it's very telling if they do decide to pull out of the agreement that they made back in June.
"Perhaps there's more going on than we know."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com
