Stevenson Open To Facing Kovalev Now or Kovalev-Ward Winner

By Ryan Burton

Over the past two years, the handlers for WBA/WBO/IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev and WBC/lineal champion Adonis Stevenson have engaged in negotiations several times, and for a variety of reasons they have not been able to come to an agreement on what would be one of the biggest fights that can be made in the sport of boxing.

After the latest round of failed negotiations, Team Kovalev and HBO set their sites on making an end of year showdown between Kovalev and former super middleweight champion Andre Ward, who made the jump to light heavyweight in March when he won an unanimous decision over Sullivan Barrera.

Stevenson reiterated that he has no problems facing Kovalev and that Kovalev's team just needs to be fair and that a deal can be struck. If Ward beats Kovalev, Stevenson said that he has no problem facing the Oakland native either.

"I am here and waiting. All they have to do is just call Al Haymon. Al is going to negotiate the fight and do everything. Just call him. For me it is not a problem to fight either of them. The problem is Kovalev. We offer him 50-50 and he doesn't take it so now I am not going to waste my time with that. Just call Al Haymon and he can make it happen," Stevenson told BoxingScene.com.

The 38-year-old Stevenson's long time friend and representative Rudy Louis said that both sides need to meet half way to make the fight a reality.  According to Louis, Kovalev's side wants everything there way.

"Adonis has no issue to fight anyone at anytime. Just put them in front of him. Al Haymon is there to negotiate and make sure the fight is fair on the business side and Adonis will jump in the ring. We didn't reject Kovlaev. Kovalev didn't want to accept the deal. He only wanted the terms his way but they are both champions. Terms should be in the middle on common ground but he refused it," Louis explained to BoxingScene.com.

"So Adonis keeps on fighting, keeps making money, and keeps being the champ. He keeps doing what he does best which is knock people out."

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