Team Kovalev: Stevenson Not Our Goal, Only His Belt

By Ryan Burton

Boxing manager Egis Klimas' deep stable of fighters have enjoyed a successful 2014.  Sergey Kovalev has added two more titles to his collection and now holds the WBO, WBA and WBC titles. Evgany Gradovich defended his IBF featherweight title successfully in both of his fights and Vasyl Lomachenko became the WBO featherweight champion in only his third professional fight.  Klimas' slew of prospects also had successful campaigns as they inch closer to a title shot.

"It feels very good when you are doing something and you see that the hard work is working and you get a good result," Klimas said, reflecting on 2014.  "Kovalev just did a tremendous, tremendous job versus Bernard Hopkins."

Klimas made it clear that his goal, and Kovalev's goal, is to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world.  He said that they are no longer as interested in facing WBC champion Adonis Stevenson who holds the only major title that is missing from Kovalev's collection.  Klimas said that the only goal is to get the WBC strap and that it isn't important who they have to fight to get it.

Kovalev-Stevenson is still one of the top fights that can be made in the sport and almost happened after Team Kovalev  believed that they had an agreement for the fight to take place in the fall.  That was before Stevenson signed with adviser Al Haymon and left HBO for Showtime, which effectively killed the fight.  Klimas said that all they care about is the WBC belt itself and hinted that Stevenson may lose the belt sooner than later.

"Lets put it this way, Kovalev wants to be undisputed.  Not just Kovalev but all of Kovalev's team wants to be undisputed champion.  To get to be undisputed champion, he needs to get one more belt, the WBC.  As far as Stevenson, we aren't particularly interested in Stevenson.  What we are interested in is the WBC belt. Right now we understand it is impossible to get it with him on Showtime and Kovalev on HBO.  I don't think there will be anything made between HBO and Showtime just for this fight. 

"We are going to have to wait for someone to grab that WBC title and then fight them or both parties will have to agree to make something happen. If it is going to be Stevenson then great. If it is going to be someone else that is fine too. Kovalev is ready to face anybody.  He just fought the best fighter in the world in the light heavyweight division in Bernard Hopkins. That gives him even more confidence," Klimas told BoxingScene.com.

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