Comments Thread For: Stevenson, Haymon in Agreement on Kovalev Fight

[AllBoxingAD]

It was Michel's idea. He even says it in this article, he wrote to the WBC and requested a speedy purse bid. He had no intention of negotiating the fight with Main Events.

My understanding is Kovalev is still under contract with HBO and that they're negotiating an extension.



Imo the plan is to put Duva in a position where she has to take Kovalev to fight on PBC, or walk away from the fight knowing well there's a good chance her relationship with HBO will likely preclude the bout.

Stevenson has just avoided big fights wit Hopkins and Jean Pascal instead under Haymon's direction opting to fight Fonfara, Sukhotsky and Bika but now we're supposed to buy he wants to fight Kovalev? It wouldn't even be a discussion on the Haymon/GYM side if Main Events hadn't pushed to get Kovalev into the mando spot in first place.

Let's say Main Events win the bid, do you think Haymon lets Stevenson go across to HBO? I'd like to be wrong and the fight happens but I'm sceptical.



Take a hike bro, there's a master thread for Floyd-Pac gripes. If you have an issue with me, the PM system is there.

Well in this article Yvon Michel is on record saying he is willing to do it.

[SkillspayBills]

They called Duva's bluff and I have a sick feeling she will try to stop this fight. Hope I am wrong. I can't remember a LHW matchup being bigger than this.

[Weebler I]

I was speaking in terms of the purse bid if Haymon were to win and HBO tells Duva to back off. Stevenson vs Kovalev sells out the Pepsi Center...possibly moved to Olympic Stadium

You mentioned Haymon had three names at LHW for Kovalev so I assumed you were talking about a longer association between Main Events and PBC/Haymon.

Well in this article Yvon Michel is on record saying he is willing to do it.

He thinks they're odds on to win the bid, as does everyone else.

But let's say Michel is willing, and he was supposedly initially willing to make the fight early last year via email, there are no guarantees Haymon would allow Stevenson to go across to HBO, it's precisely what Haymon pulled the plug on last year.

[Ringlife]

This is one of those fights that has to happen, we are getting Mayweather vs Paquiao, and Matthysse vs Provodnikov. We also need Super Man vs The Krusher. 2014 was a weak year for boxing fans, we need to be spoiled in the year 2015.

[DoktorSleepless]

It was Michel's idea. He even says it in this article, he wrote to the WBC and requested a speedy purse bid. He had no intention of negotiating the fight with Main Events.

Duva was the one who went to the WBC convention and requested Kovalev to be the mandatory is what I meant. There's really no reason for Kovalev to be the WBC mandatory other than to make it go to purse bid. They already tried free negotiations, which obviously did not work.

My understanding is Kovalev is still under contract with HBO and that they're negotiating an extension.

Contract has expired.

The multi-fight contract Kovalev signed with HBO several days before beating Cedric Agnew last March 29 in Atlantic City expired following Kovalev's impressive eighth-round technical knockout win over Quebec's Jean Pascal (29-3-1, 17 KOs, 1 NC) on Saturday night in Montreal

http://www.boxingscene.com/hbo-main-...ev-deal--88647

Imo the plan is to put Duva in a position where she has to take Kovalev to fight on PBC, or walk away from the fight knowing well there's a good chance her relationship with HBO will likely preclude the bout.

There's no HBO preclusion since there's no HBO contract. If anything, making it go to purse bid as quickly as possible will allow Haymon to win the bid before Duva signs an exclusive contract with HBO, which would prevent any contract problems.

[kafkod]

Imo the plan is to put Duva in a position where she has to take Kovalev to fight on PBC, or walk away from the fight knowing well there's a good chance her relationship with HBO will likely preclude the bout.

Stevenson has just avoided big fights wit Hopkins and Jean Pascal instead under Haymon's direction opting to fight Fonfara, Sukhotsky and Bika but now we're supposed to buy he wants to fight Kovalev? It wouldn't even be a discussion on the Haymon/GYM side if Main Events hadn't pushed to get Kovalev into the mando spot in first place.

.

The duck team have never wanted this fight. If they did it would have happened already and there would have been no need for Duva to go to the WBC asking for Kovalev to be made mandatory for their belt.

The truth is, they have been pushed into a corner and applying for purse bids was the only option they had left.

[Weebler I]

http://www.boxingscene.com/hbo-main-...ev-deal--88647

There's no HBO preclusion since there's no HBO contract. If anything, making it go to purse bid as quickly as possible will allow Haymon to win the bid before Duva signs an exclusive contract with HBO, which would prevent any contract problems.

Cheers DS, I thought there was still a contract because the Mohammedi fight was scheduled to be on HBO (and I read it) but having no contract should give Duva some bargaining power in new negotiations.

Looking at it I think HBO kind of effed up from their side, their star could walk across networks, it should be good for us tho assuming Stevenson can get by Bika.

[mathed]

All lip service, nothing more. They don't want it.

[DoktorSleepless]

Stevenson loses too much if he ducks the fight. That's why I think Stevenson will go through with it. He'll lose his WBC belt. He'll lose his Ring belt (which is considered the lineal belt for most people) because he will have not fought a top 5 guys for 2 years. He'll lose his biggest payday. He'll lose any credibility he has left. Back when he first ducked Kovalev, at least he had options. But Kovalev went ahead and destroyed those options. He went into Stevenson's home turf and demolished one of Quebec's biggest stars in front of all of Stevenson's fans. There's no other belts to go to. He's trapped. There's just no way Stevenson can avoid the fight. It would be too ridiculous even for boxing.

Kovalev can sort of "duck" the Stevenson fight without having his image hurt too much because he built up enough credibility in the past year and Stevenson has lost most of his. That's why I'm afraid Duva will take that risk by signing with HBO exclusively before the Stevenson fight can happen on another network. (If HBO doesn't put up enough money to help win the bid)

[Fetta]

There you have it Kov fans.

I see some already dont want it