By Radio Rahim
According to Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, there was a lot of acting going on last Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
Roach worked the corner of Jean Pascal (30-4-1, 17KOs), who was stopped in the seventh round of his rematch with WBA/WBO/IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (29-0-1, 26KOs).
After the fight was over, Kovalev was verbally assaulting WBC champion Adonis Stevenson during his televised post-fight interview with HBO's Max Kellerman.
Stevenson, who was sitting at ringside, entered the ring and confronted Kovalev with some choice words of his own. The situation escalated quickly, leading to a pull-apart and several people holding Stevenson back while trying to calm him down.
Roach is a little ticked off, because he personally got involved and was trying to calm Stevenson down.
After return to back, Roach claims he was shocked to see Kovalev and Stevenson hugging. In his opinion, the entire confrontation was staged to further promote a future unification between the two of them.
"Well, Adonis and him were hugging in the dressing room after that fight so that [confrontation] was all about bullsh*t. That was just a big act, so....someone is trying to sell tickets. I was disappointed. I was trying to settle the guy [Stevenson] down and stuff like this, and then I saw them hugging and I said 'why did I waste my time doing that sh*t,'" Roach told BoxingScene.com.
The two sides were recently involved in serious negotiations for several weeks in a failed attempt to put together a June fight. The deal broke apart over the television rights, with each side blaming the other for the fallout.