Comments Thread For: Team Stevenson on Main Events: It Was a Publicity Stunt

[OnePunch]

Not only was the purse bid to be 50/50, but also allowed for Kovalev to also first make his mandatory defense vs. Mohammedi and for Stevenson to make a voluntary defense. Literally the only thing that stood***8212;and still stands***8212;in the way of the fight happening was the possibility of it not taking place on HBO.

one other wrinkle. With the bid being held BEFORE the intervening bouts, even if 1 or both fighters lost those fights, the promoter would still be legally obligated to do the fight. I read nothing that indicated the winning bidder would be off the hook if either side lost their interim bout.

A person would have to be a moron to bid under those circumstances. That being said, I dont know why Duva didnt go ahead and bid, and then only pull out afterwards if she lost the bid. Obvioulsy Kov cant fight off HBO if he has an exclusive contract, but she could have at least tried to win the bid first before getting all this egg on her face and mumbling nonsense about currency exchange rates.....

[Bullrider]

Can't really call this a duck. It's obvious Kovalev has a contract with HBO and fighting on another network, especially a PBC network, isn't going to fly with HBO. Food for thought: why can't both teams negotiate without a purse bid? If Stevenson isn't tied to any network like they say, why can't team stevenson agree for the fight to be on HBO? I'm not buying this "we want the fight" and "they're" walking away stuff.

Yep. You gotta be mentally deficient to believe that crap. Supercrap Stevenson won the jackpot again. He will never have to face Kovalev.

[Jsmooth9876]

Kovalev is the loser here. Stevenson can fight Chavez, beterbiev,or any other 168 guy in haymons stable that comes up to 175.
Who does kovalev have to fight? That Pascal rematch suddenly looks very enticing to them I bet .

[big_james10]

This is a good article. It explains the situation in detail. I am sure that when Duva went to the WBC in December to ask for the Kovalev/Paschal winner to be declared the mandatory opponent, she never anticipated that things would work out the way they have. She had no idea what would happen with Haymon's company and assumed that Stevenson's team would be forced to agree to fight Kovalev on HBO.

Duva never had any intention of putting Kovalev in the ring with Stevenson unless Stevenson agreed to fight on HBO for whatever amount HBO was willing to offer. Now, she has egg on her face.

The biggest loser here is Kovalev. He will have to fight his next few fights on HBO against mediocre opposition for less than he received against Hopkins and much less than what he would have gotten against Stevenson. Stevenson has the option of fighting Chavez Jr. on PPV or Lucian Bute in Canada (since both are signed with Haymon) for the same amount of money or more than he would have received against Kovalev.

[Pigeons]

Kathy Duva is a disgrace and her promotional company Main Events is a joke.

[Ravens Fan]

That's totally rubbish ...

.

I must of been seeing things. Because I thought he claimed that they were only going to pay the Krusher 30%. Maybe I quoted the wrong post??

[The Big Dunn]

it wasn't a stunt.

hbo had kovalev withdraw their bid.

because kovalev is under contract with hbo.

if they bid and lost, hbo wasn't gonna let it.

BS Tua. Kov had an HBO deal and Stevenson was on Showtime when Duva made the initial request to be the mandatory. Herschman likes to operate with a small budget, same as he did when he ran SHowtime. He doesn't want to pay big for fights. Fight clearly was headed to a purse bid.

For her and Kov to pull out now citing HBO suggests she didn't check with them before going to the WBC. DO you think she would do that with an HBO contracted fighter?

Come on.

[SUBZER0ED]

BS Tua. Kov had an HBO deal and Stevenson was on Showtime when Duva made the initial request to be the mandatory. Herschman likes to operate with a small budget, same as he did when he ran SHowtime. He doesn't want to pay big for fights. Fight clearly was headed to a purse bid.

For her and Kov to pull out now citing HBO suggests she didn't check with them before going to the WBC. DO you think she would do that with an HBO contracted fighter?

Come on.

I'm thinking Duva hoped it wouldn't go to a purse bid. It's way too soon for that, given the fight wasn't to take place until the end of the year. Michel indicated that he requested a purse bid in lieu of a 30 day negotiation process. This was a clear power play by team Stevenson and Haymon. Let's not forget that Stevenson ran to Haymon and Showtime after failing to get the money he wanted from HBO for the Fonfara fight.

You have a point about Herschman. He didn't want to pay crazy money to Stevenson to fight Fonfara without a promised fight with Kovalev. Now that Stevenson is with Haymon and Showtime, it's reasonable to believe that Herschman surely isn't going to pay out the bum for a Stevenson fight. After seeing Stevenson get dropped by Fonfara, fight cherry picks Sukhotsky and (undersized) Bika, why would Herschman pay big money for him to fight Kovalev? Sergey can take Adonis's belt easily, but neither his promoter nor the network he fights on are willing to pay dearly for the opportunity. There's also no way Herschman will let Kovalev fight anywhere but on HBO.