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Duva states, I’ve been sending notes to WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman and I told him, ‘Listen, we will fight Stevenson in June. I will make a deal with Yvon right now." The condition being Sergey wins in January, we’ll fight Stevenson in the spring and we can do it on pay-per-view with HBO. My only problem: We both agreed that 50/50’s fair and I told him, if necessary, we’ll go to Canada and that the only issue here is that who distributes it. “Sergey has a multi-fight deal with HBO. He cannot fight anywhere else.”
Michel responded, “We understand they have a contract with HBO, Adonis has fought for Showtime and platforms and, for the moment, we don’t feel it’s fair for the network that has supported Adonis since the last four, five fights to not be in the race, , for the possibility of doing the biggest fight in that division.
Duva responded, “Big fights so rarely get made with purse bid and there’s a reason why: They’re far too big and complicated.” But perhaps this is out of Stevenson’s hands. Maybe he really has no say in this. For the time being, the PBC universe simply doesn’t intersect with the rest of the boxing cosmos.
Again, said Duva, “if Kovalev fights Ward at the end of next year, which is starting to look like it’s very possible, who’s going to remember Adonis Stevenson after that? Who’s gonna care? What are they gonna say? Sergey’s ducking Stevenson by fighting Andre Ward?
If the reporters and the people who follow this stuff on Twitter are going to be dumb enough to buy this, let them.
by Steve Kim | Oct 20, 2015
Well first off I think in boxing talking about ducking is naive. Things are way more complicated than that. This isn't two guys about to fight in a backyard. Its a sport & business. And Boxing is probably 60/40 business over sport at this point at best.
And idk Stevenson's current deal with Showtime/PBC thats going on off the dome rn. There seems to be a bit of a hybrid deal or opting out going on, but idk exactly whats happening there. I know Showtime is the one who Stevenson has (or had) a deal with, but he's clearly been fighting on PBC (although I believe under CBS who's Showtime's daddy iirc so maybe thats where the hybrid stuff comes in at idk). So idk what to make of this current situation as far as Stevenson goes only that HBO misplayed their hand by not matching the deal Stevenson was offered. Stevenson vs Kovalev happens if HBO simply gives the man what he's worth. Sometimes the lil guy (Stevenson) gots to stand up against the big guy (HBO) in these deals where the big guy is trying to lean on them with their influence.
The bold is true in most cases. Unfortunately, the majority of posters in this forum have other agendas and won't acknowledge it.
Well yea I can't argue with that. Stevenson made a good deal for him, but the fans got effed. I'd just argue HBO is more at fault for putting things in that position.
When HBO had Stevenson under contract they didn't wanna continue paying him his market value. The great thing about HBO is they make so many good fights. The bad thing for HBO is they make so many good fights they raise the value of those fighters & in this case to the point of not being willing to match what someone else was willing to pay him.
I don't think its fair to expect fighters, who only got one shot at this while HBO has been in boxing for 40yrs, to not look out for #1 & just accept lesser deals in the getting hit in the head business.
but the point is he would be richer (not to mention more loved) if he had stayed on hbo and tangled with hbo's lhws - unless he lost. so what this actually boils down to is not a fighter choosing a more lucrative path but a fighter choosing an easier path, which is pretty much the textbook definition of a "duck". signing with haymon only makes financial sense for stevenson if we grant that he would lose to kovalev (or perhaps hopkins or pascal)
and i may be wrong here but i believe haymon is only actually supplying his minimum guarantee of $750k* and the rest of his money comes from canadian tv, which he'd get regardless. i think most of his fights are ppv over there. can any canadians confirm or dispel this?
* for the record, kovalev got $750k for his defence against mohammedi, so if i'm right then evidently hbo can match pbc even when it comes to fluff fights
Man why are you people making things complicated? This is not rocket science. Chickenson will never fight Kovalev. End of story. He's scared.
This is the correct answer
I don't think it is fear or ducking from the fighters themselves, I think GREED from both sides is what is killing this one and also Animosity between HBO and Haymon make them not even want to try and negotiate and work something out
Fans make things worse because they're just trying to make their favorite fighter of the two look like the tough guy in all of this. Why should Kovalev, HBO and Duva push to make this fight when they already have fans on their side blaming it all on Stevenson
Are we forgetting chad Dawson was the best and lineal champ st LHW
he was top 3
it was ward who broke him
karpency & stevenson just reaped the benefits
Thats spin brother. From my understanding HBO has matching offers with their fighters. Adonis was a HBO fighter. I think all fighters should be getting the max money they can during their career since careers can be so limited. I think any fighter should be doing that. Adonis found a better deal & HBO decided not to match it. If HBO matches that offer Adonis is STILL fighting on HBO today most likely. Thats the truth. If HBO had a contract for Adonis vs Sergey they woulda sued & won. So idk how Stevenson ran. He made a business decision & so did HBO. Stevenson found out he was worth more money than HBO was paying him & HBO decided they didn't want that fight to happen THAT bad.
do you really think he earned more for fighting fonfara, sukhotsky, bika and karpency than he would have got against kovalev, hopkins, pascal + one mandatory/stay-busy? well, maybe if you believe that he would have lost to one of the hbo fighters and suffered a drop in value (krusher might have even retired him on the spot). and that's the salient point here: it's not that pbc pay him more than hbo could, it's that they pay him more for doing less. good deal for stevenson but absolutely nothing to celebrate for us fans
kovalev-ward is an interesting clash of styles
both of them just humiliate stevenson
are we forgetting his best win is chad dawson and there aint much to mention after that?
Are we forgetting chad Dawson was the best and lineal champ st LHW
Why the f*ck do they need to purse bid if they both want the fight? Haymon/GYM can goto HBO and name their price for f*ck sakes. F*ck Duva and the Russian billionaires, if GYM/Haymon want the fight, just tell HBO the price and either way it's done... That's the only thing holding this fight back, but you can pretend otherwise.
Because Haymon wants it on PBC and Duva wants it on HBO. They will not reach terms. They need to bid for exclusive rights.
Fvck both of them. They are killing boxing and you taking sides are contributing to the demise.
FOH dude. You have a horse in this race. Purse bids are good for boxing. Just outbid Haymon. That simple. Duva is incompetent.
Why the f*ck do they need to purse bid if they both want the fight? Haymon/GYM can goto HBO and name their price for f*ck sakes. F*ck Duva and the Russian billionaires, if GYM/Haymon want the fight, just tell HBO the price and either way it's done... That's the only thing holding this fight back, but you can pretend otherwise.
That's BS spin. GYM requested the purse bid rather than to set up through negotiation. ME purposely asked them to hold-off the purse bid and to negotiate but GYM refused.
It's really simple if GYM/Haymon want it - they make an outrageous offer to HBO, if HBO rejects it then GYM/Haymon are free to take the fight to PBC/Showtime. It's so freaking simple, and yet they forced the purse bid to kill the fight and then people like you choose to ignore that and spin it like Kovalev's ducking. GTFO.....
FOH dude. You have a horse in this race. Purse bids are good for boxing. Just outbid Haymon. That simple. Duva is incompetent.
If you take a side your a Stan boy.
Last year, Stevenson orchestrated the most clever, sophisticated duck in the history of boxing. Disgraceful behavior.
But this year, he grew a pair of balls. And the fight was set to go, but Team Kovalev backed out of the purse bid and ducked the fight.
These 2 fu*kers ducked each other. I've never seen anything like this.
That's BS spin. GYM requested the purse bid rather than to set up through negotiation. ME purposely asked them to hold-off the purse bid and to negotiate but GYM refused.
It's really simple if GYM/Haymon want it - they make an outrageous offer to HBO, if HBO rejects it then GYM/Haymon are free to take the fight to PBC/Showtime. It's so freaking simple, and yet they forced the purse bid to kill the fight and then people like you choose to ignore that and spin it like Kovalev's ducking. GTFO.....
there's no evidence that he grew a pair. haymon was obviously well aware that duva wouldn't let kovalev fight on pbc and basically pulled a pr coup. if by some miracle hbo had had the budget to call their bluff and outbid them, haymon would have pulled stevenson out just like duva did. it's all posturing. the only way it could maybe get made is with a dual hbo/showtime ppv, but gym are refusing to negotiate. sure, they could hypothetically get a bit more on pbc, but since that option is impossible the only way to get paid at all is on ppv. but evidently gym prefer their phony moral high ground to actually getting their fighter in the ring. easier to knock over a string of tommy karpencys for $750k a pop than gamble the whole operation for probably $3m or so
Then why not call his bluff and outbid him? I thought Kovalev had this Russian trillionaire that was going to bid for him?
If you take a side your a Stan boy.
Last year, Stevenson orchestrated the most clever, sophisticated duck in the history of boxing. Disgraceful behavior.
But this year, he grew a pair of balls. And the fight was set to go, but Team Kovalev backed out of the purse bid and ducked the fight.
These 2 fu*kers ducked each other. I've never seen anything like this.
there's no evidence that he grew a pair. haymon was obviously well aware that duva wouldn't let kovalev fight on pbc and basically pulled a pr coup. if by some miracle hbo had had the budget to call their bluff and outbid them, haymon would have pulled stevenson out just like duva did. it's all posturing. the only way it could maybe get made is with a dual hbo/showtime ppv, but gym are refusing to negotiate. sure, they could hypothetically get a bit more on pbc, but since that option is impossible the only way to get paid at all is on ppv. but evidently gym prefer their phony moral high ground to actually getting their fighter in the ring. easier to knock over a string of tommy karpencys for $750k a pop than gamble the whole operation for probably $3m or so
That's some bullsh*t right there. HBO built Adonis Stevenson. They gave him the 3 biggest fights of his career - Dawson, Cloud, Bellew. Adonis ran to Showtime to avoid Kovalev and has milked them and the PBC ever since with soft-as-baby-sh*t fights.
If you take a side your a Stan boy.
Last year, Stevenson orchestrated the most clever, sophisticated duck in the history of boxing. Disgraceful behavior.
But this year, he grew a pair of balls. And the fight was set to go, but Team Kovalev backed out of the purse bid and ducked the fight.
These 2 fu*kers ducked each other. I've never seen anything like this.
Michel responded, “We understand they have a contract with HBO, Adonis has fought for Showtime and platforms and, for the moment, we don’t feel it’s fair for the network that has supported Adonis since the last four, five fights to not be in the race, , for the possibility of doing the biggest fight in that division.
That's some bullsh*t right there. HBO built Adonis Stevenson. They gave him the 3 biggest fights of his career - Dawson, Cloud, Bellew. Adonis ran to Showtime to avoid Kovalev and has milked them and the PBC ever since with soft-as-baby-sh*t fights.