Al Haymon knows what he's doing...
I think a older Adonis Stevenson will be matched against a ferocious Artur Beterbiev in a changing of the guard in the Light Heavyweight division... ( In the WBC )
This would allow Haymon to keep the Lineal belt in house.... Beterbiev is no spring chicken either at 31 (I think)..
I'm guessing this is the fight that Al can hype for Adonis down the road..
Beterbiev and Kovalev greatly dislike each other, so that animosity will only fan the flames.... From there, who knows... Adonis might not want a piece of Kovalev, but Beterbiev certainly does.....
Perhaps that's the fight to take place for a undisputed unified Light Heavyweight Championship we should look for down the road ???
I think GYM also has something to say about this too. I know the cool thing to do these days is to act like Haymon is either a modern day Don King & all powerful, but GYM is still the promoter of both fighters & has stated he doesn't intend to have them fight.
Yvon Michel has absolutely zero say in the careers of Stevenson and Beterbiev at this point.
Just found out that Beterbiev is 8 years younger than Stevenson and 2 years younger than Kov.
If Stevenson struggles, I wont be surprised if they feed him to Beterbiev in a year.
i don't think haymon will even make it to that point. pbc looks like its about done. i'm assuming he will retreat to showtime where they don't have the budget or time slots for all his fighters. fighters will start leaving and going back to hbo and the floodgates of freedom will open. haymon might stay in the game a little while longer but more than likely he will exit stage left just like he did in the entertainment industry with a soiled reputation but bags of money.
Think Big ...
After Kovalev dispatches Ward and Beterbiev dispatches Stevenson, they can thump for all the marbles .....
With the fued they've got, it could easily be fight of the year caliber or beyond ??? Then rematch or trilogy material....