Stevenson-Kovalev in jeopardy

[Hougigo]

So this has to be Haymon telling Stevenson, "Make the Fonfara fight on Showtime, I'll get Espinosa to pay more than HBO was going to anyway, then you can cement your legacy by finally being the one who KOs B-Hop!"

Then Haymon tells Espinosa, "Bid more than HBO, make the Stevenson-Fonfara fight, then we actually have a marketable fight for a 50-year-old Bernard Hopkins!"

Ugh, when is the GBP split going to happen? At least then we will have more interesting things to talk about.

Well, I assume they want to put a bidding war on a neutral promoter....but HBO will only bite if he fights Kovalev afterwards...they wasted a fight on Kovalev/Agnew

[Chiboxing123]

So blame Stevenson for entertaining a more lucrative offer on a rival network? You're a fucking idiot.

I see what you're saying from a business stand point. But as a fan are you not Let down alittle. Stevenson and kovalev are tops at 175 and would be such a bad a$$ fight. Do you watch the sport from a buisness stand point or as a fan or would you rather watch hopkins vs Adonis stringer?

[cupcrazy01]

Espinosa (I could do without his pretentious attitude on Twitter) needs to hear from many about how ridiculous it is that they are proactively trying to ruin a hugely anticipated fight.

[J The UnBiased]

for those who say boxers aren't afraid, even mike tyson admitted being scared minutes before getting in the ring. kovalev scared this dude

My man, who are you to say what another man feels?

[deanrw]

I suspected something like this would happen after Stevenson signed with Haymon.

What surprises me though is HBO seems to have really tightened up their pockets the past couple years for most of the fighters not named Andre Ward. Showtime gets less viewers by at least 30% yet seems to have deeper pockets.

When you see guys like Golovkin getting 1.5 million viewers for $350,000 per fight, I am surprised more are not jumping ship

[-PBP-]

Yeah, there's a limit to what's reasonable and/or sensible from an HBO perspective.

They already got jobbed themselves forking out $3 million over the odds for Ward-Rodriguez (another Haymon fighter).

Don't overlook that Stevenson wants Hopkins, he's always calling him out. It's always mumbling excuses when Kovalev's name is brought up.

As boxing fans we all know the pattern.

They set a precedent by overpaying for Cotto/D Rod and Ward/E Rod. They've put on a ton of mismatches over the past few months. But it doesn't matter because they are still doing 1.1 million in viewer ratings on average.

I don't think they care about retaining the elite level talent anymore. They can showcase guys like Glen Tapia for extremely cheap purses and good ratings.

[J The UnBiased]

did stevenson threaten to leave hbo and demand more money when fighting cloud or bellew? no those purses were fine and dandy and they weren't close to what he would make to fight kovalev. oh you want me to fight someone good? how dare you i'm outta here! i can make more money on another network! if thats true why didn't you leave before?.............does anyone seriously believe stevenson would fight kovalev if they were both on showtime? stevenson would say the same sh-it. i need more money! the dumbass fans would say pay the man if you want him to fight! then he would fight a bum like fonfarra for less and the fans would ignore that.

You want the fight, pay the man. If not, stop bitching pussy.

[VG_Addict]

Stevenson is only champ because he was in the right place at the right time. He fought Dawson, who was coming off a loss against Ward, in a fight where he was badly weight-drained.

[Porter's Dad]

Espinosa (I could do without his pretentious attitude on Twitter) needs to hear from many about how ridiculous it is that they are proactively trying to ruin a hugely anticipated fight.

He doesn't give a ****.

That man is going to lead Showtime to ruin.

I mean, do they really need to overpay for Adonis-Fonfara? Then Adonis-Hopkins? On top of huge guarantees to Mayweather? As well as all those whack-ass TMT fighters like J'Leon and Ishe getting TV dates?

I really wish someone higher up at Showtime got involved in this ****. It's a bunch of dudes - Haymon, Mayweather, and most likely Espinosa himself - getting ****** rich while leading the channel up dangerous, unsustainable path.

Only a few years ago that Showtime were doing fights like Vasquez-Marquez and the Super Six. Now look at this ****.

[RSBonos]

You want the fight, pay the man. If not, stop bitching pussy.

We've moved from fans living vicariously through fighters to now pretending that they are big player managers.