Why does it have to be HBO's way or the highway?

[KingTito]

It's all ridiculous to me. I'm a fan of fighters. Promoters, advisors, managers and networks are whatever to me. Do I think any of them really care about what I want as a fan? No. I just want the best fights at the right time without the nonsense. The problem is that people defend those who are stopping fights from happening. Enough with having allegiance to these businessmen/women because a fighter you like is associated with them. It amazes me that people defend why a fight isn't happening. When fights aren't made, the fans are the ones who miss out. Bottom line.

[Lester Tutor]

Well let's see.
Stevenson declined Kovalev the first time.
There were talks about Stevenson vs Hopkins but agains Stevenson didn't take the fight.
Stevenson could have fought Pascal in their home town of Montreal, but Stevenson didn't take the fight.

At some point you have to think its Stevenson.

Stevenson would destroy Pascal and Bhop. Have you seen Stevenson fight? That LEFT...he's a wicked LHW Southpaw. Dude's got mad power. I can only see Ward outboxing Kovalev and controlling the distance, but not hurting him. Stevenson imo is a guy that would rock Kovalev's face flush. Pascal nor Bhop have Stevenson's power.

[Sweet Jones]

That was true at one point but no longer the case. Crawford for example will never be a star because he has no one to fight. Garcia has way more momentum and upside star potential at this point.

Look at Lomachenko. The greatest amateur boxer in history and he's inactive, can't get a fight and is on a bum of the month tour right now. Walters marketability tanked.

Look at their schedule for God sakes. It ****in sucks. Where is your Frampton/Quigg or Thurman/Porter??

They are doing the exact same thing Haymon gets criticized for....paying these dudes millions to fight horrible opposition.

Well said.

[285Kid]

Kov vs Steveson pay per view on both network make no sense , this is not Manny vs Floyd , Kov/Stevenson will only get 150K buyrate

[Raonic]

They want a PPV fight. PBC doesn't do PPVs and Showtime has nothing to do with Stevenson as he hasn't fought on their network is over a year.

What else needs to be said?

[JJRod]

Stevenson would destroy Pascal and Bhop. Have you seen Stevenson fight? That LEFT...he's a wicked LHW Southpaw. Dude's got mad power. I can only see Ward outboxing Kovalev and controlling the distance, but not hurting him. Stevenson imo is a guy that would rock Kovalev's face flush. Pascal nor Bhop have Stevenson's power.

I have seen him fight.
No one is dis*****g his talent. We're talking about his off the ring antics here, and these are the facts.

Stevenson could have fought Kovalev in 2014. He declined.
He could have fought Hopkins. He declined.
Could have fought Pascal. He declined.

And as far as claiming Stevenson would destroy Pascal, we'll if the fights were that easy why didn't he make those fights?
Hopkins would have been a great showcase fight for him on Showtime, why didn't he make the fight?
Pascal in Montreal would have been one of his biggest purses, yet he showed no interest in making the fight. So again if they were so easy why didn't he make the fight? Kovalev made the fights. Fought both Hopkins and Pascal. Stevenson fought who again?

It's so easy to talk and say this guy would destroy the other guy, it's a lot harder to show it. Kovalev has shown it, Stevenson has shown himself to be a quack.

[Lester Tutor]

It's so easy to talk and say this guy would destroy the other guy, it's a lot harder to show it. Kovalev has shown it, Stevenson has shown himself to be a quack.

Dude, I have so much respect for the 50 yr old Alien, but there's no way in hell I'd want him to fight Stevenson, nor would anybody else, not at this age. Only reason Bhop survived Kova was because he knows how to control the distance and move around the ring, and Stevenson ain't no Shumenov...

What is the relevance of bringing up the first fight between Kovalev and Stevenson not happening to the second time around where official paper work was disclosed to the public, with even Kevin Iole and other top boxing columnists not happy with Duva's decision. How are you going to justify that? By bringing up the initial bout? Negotiations not happening in boxing is nothing new, and be rest assured the last person publicly at fault was Duva, so it has nothing to do with Stevenson. Kovalev is just happy milking the current time of events or else he would've said something to Stevenson in ring instead of walking away.

[Fetta]

1 umbrella!

[Raonic]

The reason the fight fell through is because they couldn't agree to a HBO/ST joint promotion. Once you realize that ST has NOTHING to do with Stevenson, then you see how ****** his side is. He's not contractually obligated to ST but he's bringing in an uninvolved party to the situation, which is what held up the situation. HBO and Kovalev's side has every right to complain about splitting profits to ST, who shouldn't even be involved to begin with.

[soul_survivor]

But it's necessary. It's necessary my friend. As boxing fans, if we're going to fight the good fight, and continue to "have this thing of ours", we have to have these conversations not only to enlighten the uninformed, but to also change the status quo.

We can't continue to have these 6 year stretches of Mayweather-Pac or it will completely kill the sport.

Now, these older posters that are fine with this status quo, let them go for there's no saving them. But the newer generation of boxing fans have to be indoctrinated to not accept this status quo and continue to fight for change by voicing their opinions via twitter and direct emails to those responsible for allowing this and causing all this chaos.

We need to encourage better ethical, unbiased and hard working journalism that will hold those party's involved responsible for not letting these mega fights happen.

In the Information Age, we as fans, have the biggest platform to post our opinions and desires for requested fights via twitter, facebook, boxing forums, etc.

You can't run from conversations like these, but must go to them and fight the good fight. Your vote counts.

I never said I would NOT demand the best fights, especially in a timely manner, in fact, I have and always will, say the opposite: the best fights should happen when they are supposed two, i.e. when the top guys are not only at the top but at their best. Look at my many, many posts on the topic or just the post that you seem not to have read in this thread.

What I mean, when I say network disputes/arguments etc, is the fact that fans, the vast majority of fools on this site for example, will pick a side and not look at the facts, so they will always be pro HBO or always be pro Showtime/Haymon, a lot of which is guided by the colour of their skin and nationality, as well as where ever their favourite fighter happens to ply his trade. Again, the criteria of a favourite fighter is guided by their race and/or nationality.

I find that ****** and counterproductive. However, looking at individual cases, then yes, networks can be blamed, fighters can be blamed and broadcasters can be blamed, for example, in this instance, it was Kovalev's team who pulled out of the bout the last time it got close to be getting made (there's nothing closer than a purse bid). Sad thing is, Kovalev/HBO fans will refuse to see that, the same way Haymon fans will refuse to see the damage mismatches on his PBC shows are doing to boxing.

All in all, in most cases, a fruitless discussion.