Team Stevenson Eye Kovalev Fall Clash in Quebec

By Luke Furman

Promoter Yvon Michel of GYM, who handles WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, is going to expedite the process of the mandatory negotiations to face WBA/WBO/IBF champion Sergey Kovalev.

Last December at the WBC's annual convention in Las Vegas, the sanctioning body made an unprecedented move by ordering a final eliminator with one of the two combatants being a unified champion of three rival sanctioning organizations. Kovalev won the eliminator on Saturday night by stopping Jean Pascal in the eight round.

Michel is prepared to have a battle of checkbooks at a WBC mandated purse bid. Stevenson's adviser, Al Haymon, is almost sure to get involved with his monetary arsenal to ensure Stevenson gains the edge to select the venue and network.

"A fight of this magnitude requires a long preparation time [to stage the event]. We want to expedite things. We want to ask the WBC to set down a date for the purse bid. The only thing that could stop this fight from happening is if Stevenson loses against Sakio Bika on April 4 or Kovalev loses against Nadjib Mohammedi during his mandatory defense of the IBF title. Our goal is to make this fight with Kovalev and we will try to bring this fight to Quebec in the fall," Michel told RDS.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.