Comments Thread For: Sergey Kovalev's Return Has Cloud of Uncertain Horizons

[Cinci Champ]

its pretty clear duva and kovalav ducking stevenson or being loyal to hbo whatever u prefer to call it damaged his rep and money making power plan and simple it would be like pac man turning down a purse bid to fight floyd it would have destroyed him

[Weebler I]

Kov signed a new HBO deal after pulling out of the purse bid so your point about the fight not being on HBO being an issue is completely untrue.

They weren't going to fight on PBC so it is the issue. Main Events was 100% not having the fight on Al Haymon's channel, they work with HBO. When they were both with the same network Stevenson didn't want to know. It's that simple.

Meanwhile they have secured Kovalev's future with a new HBO deal.

[hitking]

I keep saying it. Instead of sitting around on Stevenson and/or Ward. Kovalev should make the jump and fight Deontay Wilder for that paper trinket he has. Pretty much every great light heavyweight in history has tested the heavyweight waters. And for a guy with Kovalev's amateur pedigree. Navigating the size difference against a relative boxing novice like Wilder shouldn't be an impossible task. The David vs Goliath storyline always sells. It would defintely create an exciting for Kovalev while he waits on Stevenson and Ward.

[Eff Pandas]

Soon Haymon will have 2 of his fighters as Kovalev's Mandatory, and you know he will put up the money for the purse bid. Will he fight or drop the belts?

If that happens I suspect the most likely outcome is for Kov to drop the belt(s). I do hold some feelings that Beterbiev could want to fight Kov so bad that he would leave PBC for this opportunity. And with Haymon being willing to allow Andre Dirrell & Lucas Matthysse to leave seemingly of their own accord & definitely without drama as others seem to have upon break ups I don't think this is out of the realm of possibilities.

[Eff Pandas]

I keep saying it. Instead of sitting around on Stevenson and/or Ward. Kovalev should make the jump and fight Deontay Wilder for that paper trinket he has. .

You aren't following along with the current situation I can only assume or don't know that Wilder seems to be a flagship PBC fighter & Kov fighting off of HBO or Wilder fighting on HBO aren't things that have good odds of going down right now.

[saintpat]

The question here is why HBO wouldn't back the purse bid and throw everything behind Duva to land the fight on their network.

[hitking]

You aren't following along with the current situation I can only assume or don't know that Wilder seems to be a flagship PBC fighter & Kov fighting off of HBO or Wilder fighting on HBO aren't things that have good odds of going down right now.

Wasn't Wilder's last fight on Showtime? If so, didn't know Showtime was televising PBC shows.

[New England]

bscene writers should steer clear of the metaphor

[The Big Dunn]

They weren't going to fight on PBC so it is the issue. Main Events was 100% not having the fight on Al Haymon's channel, they work with HBO. When they were both with the same network Stevenson didn't want to know. It's that simple.

Meanwhile they have secured Kovalev's future with a new HBO deal.

Main events worked with NBC in the past and, to my knowledge, doesn't have an HBO exclusive deal as a company.

In 2014, neither fighter had an exclusive network deal. Stevenson signed one with showtime. You called him on it. In 2015, Kov initial HBO deal expired. he had asked for a purse bid for Stevenson's belt. They got it. then Kov/Duva pulled out of the bid then resigned an exclusive network deal with HBO.

Call Kov on it like you did Stevenson.

[Weebler I]

Main events worked with NBC in the past and, to my knowledge, doesn't have an HBO exclusive deal as a company.

Yes, and they were dropped for PBC. Main Events are not putting Kovalev on PBC, period.

In 2014, neither fighter had an exclusive network deal. Stevenson signed one with showtime. You called him on it. In 2015, Kov initial HBO deal expired. he had asked for a purse bid for Stevenson's belt. They got it. then Kov/Duva pulled out of the bid then resigned an exclusive network deal with HBO.

Call Kov on it like you did Stevenson.

They were both fighting on HBO, the fight was going to be made. Stevenson didn't want the fight, then turned Hopkins and Pascal down too. GYM didn't want Kovalev as mandatory, so they expedited the purse bid to scare Main Events off with PBC. It worked, but let's not pretend it was anything other that.

And no amount of spin will change the fact Stevenson turned down three big names and is deliberately fighting bums.