Comments Thread For: Stevenson, HBO Emails Contradict Statements on Deal

[Larry the boss]

Stevenson signed with Haymon to price himself out over a fight with Andrezj "The Great one" Fonfara so that he can have a "legitimate" excuse to avoid Kovalev.


Lmao. Very unfortunate duck, as far as the fans go!



Oh well... I guess Kovalev is officially the best 175lber in the world

guess you are just going to ignore all the facts just posted and make up your own story

[Deevel916]

Boxing in its current state has become nothing but a god damn soap opera for men!

[anonymous2.0]

Boxing in its current state had become nothing but a god damn soap opera for men!

Meh. If I wanted a combat soap opera I would watch WWE. Its more reliable and its PPV are far cheaper.

[al-Xander]

No wonder Star vs Star type of fights are getting harder and harder to make these days. Star vs Bum types are easier. This is the effect of the Haymon connection.

No one wants to fight Thurman. Why? Because GBP can only offer undercard money. And there are many examples.

[Citizen Koba]

After having read the article it certainly does seem as though HBO made a mess of things and the prior, common consensus that Stevenson ducked Kovalev seems to hold less weight. I'll hold my hands up and say I was one of the first to jump on the band-wagon with publically blasting Stevenson and whilst the the credibility of this article could be questionable, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if the reason for "the" fight not happening was actually down to HBO.

The reason why it's so frustrating is because this marks the epitome of this "cold war" between the networks. This fight quickly became one of the biggest fights that could possibly be made; the trash talk between the two started heating up and everyone was growing in confidence it was next on the agenda then all of a sudden, no....

Not only do we have these issues with promoters egos and valuations getting in the way of the best fights being made, but we also have the two biggest financial parties involved with boxing at an ABSOLUTE stand off. It's gradually been getting worse, and we're now at the stage where the second people mention two big names that would make for a fantastic fight, if said two names don't "belong" to the same network, the fight simply will not happen....

The only possible (and plausible) way I see this "cold war" coming to an end would be to give both broadcasters a major kick in the balls by launching a large online campaign to "illegally" stream all fights across the internet. As fans of boxing, the requirement to spectate upon the sport is mandatory, regardless of whether or not the fight we want to see are being made. Because of this, we're basically being forced into funding this "cold war;" subsequently preventing the biggest fights from being made....

I'm not actually sure...despite appearing to address the issues, on a close reading the article does very little to advance the discussion...yeah, so Stevenson was reluctant to be tied into a multi-fight deal (3 fights if I'm reading correctly - though I ain't completely sure from the language if any fights beyond Kovalev were inclusive - if they were I'd consider it unreasonable unless it were a rematch).

Michel (or rep) acknowledges a deal was arrived at in principle to fight Kovalev (though not necessarily on HBO) - upon the basis of which ME and Kovalev acted in a way which was not necessarily in their fiscal interests had such an agreement not been in place.


The Haymon interest is suggested as being irrelevent (since Stevenson only signed with Haymon part way through the negotiations), but early statements make it clear that Haymon or at least those close to him had been on familiar terms with Stevenson well before the official signing.

In essence, nothing new...the language makes it sound as if Haymon only came onto the scene at last moment and helpfully managed to resolve an impasse, but earlier statements make it clear that the Haymon team had had contacts with Stevenson far earlier and that perhaps (and I suppose cleverly played) they were the hidden ace in Adonis' hand or more likely the unacknowledged whispers in his ear.

SHO and Haymon have pulled off a fantastic coup in pulling a division that had been fractured and largely irrelevent on to their network within months of it became exciting and potentially lucrative - if I was a businessman I would probably applaud them - as a fight fan, well, just s#it. Any title 'unified' without a Kovalev fight means litttle IMO.

[King_]

How's the weather in fantasy land?

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Leonard Eller B

[mananimal111]

Ken hershman is fking HBO up. HBO only Deals with Mexicans and Black in the Ring ONLY. HBO wants no part of Delahoya(Mexican) and AL haymon(black). Its becoming more Obvious by the day. They paying fighters ESPN money these days.

[BattlingNelson]

The emails always mention a three fight deal. The Kovalev deal was part of that three fight package and all three fights went hand in hand. We saw nothing were Michel tried to break those fights apart or anything where HBO attempted to do the same. If HBO had raised the fee and Michel agreed, he would in turn be agreeing to a three fight deal. We saw nothing where they wanted a certain fee for Fonfara without agreeing to a multi-fight HBO contract.

I missed the bit where Michel told HBO, that if they raised the fee, Stevenson would agree to a 3 fight deal. Didn't it only say that Stevenson wanted more money for his next 3 fights? Is it clear that Michel could deliver a Stevenson signature for a 3 fight deal?

We know that subsequently, when Haymon came into the picture, that Stevenson would only deal for Fonfara.

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

I missed the bit where Michel told HBO, that if they raised the fee, Stevenson would agree to a 3 fight deal. Didn't it only say that Stevenson wanted more money for his next 3 fights?

We know that subsequently, when Haymon came into the picture, that Stevenson would only deal for Fonfara.

HBO wanted a three fight deal or no deal. There was no fight by fight, only a a disagreement on what the numbers would be. Because HBO believed Showtime had exhausted their budget, they felt Michel had no other avenue to explore. But he did and Showtime obviously did not exhaust their budget and scooped Stevenson up.

[BattlingNelson]

HBO wanted a three fight deal or no deal. There was no fight by fight, only a a disagreement on what the numbers would be. Because HBO believed Showtime had exhausted their budget, they felt Michel had no other avenue to explore. But he did and Showtime obviously did not exhaust their budget and scooped Stevenson up.

So it is clear that Michel could in fact have delivered Stevenson to a 3 fight deal for a very slight raise in the HBO fee?