Is everyone ducking Artur Bietriev?

[DoktorSleepless]

they are true, trust me.

Did Kovalev duck Beterbiev?

[Cheek busting]

How true are the reports of everyone ducking Artur?

Very true...

Absolutely NOBODY wants anything to do with this BEAST.

Every boxer and their mother, from 168-200 are scared to even say his name..

Essentially, he's put THE FEAR OF GOD in their hearts.

Kovalev is the only man in, and around his weight class who stands his equal, and would accept a fight against him.

[Madison Boxing]

Did Kovalev duck Beterbiev?

no, to be fair to him he didnt duck him in the amatuers, fought him twice and got bashed up twice.

[Scipio2009]

Barrera is ranked in all the orgs. He has other routes to get a title shot.

If Ward ducks the Kovalev rematch, Barrera is a likely opponent HBO would want for Kovalev, and he won't duck him like Beterbiev.

The WBA is likely to make the Cleverly-Braehmer II winner their mandatory, Beterbiev is going to fight someone to be the IBF mandatory, and the WBO hardly ever even forces a mandatory.

Kovalev isn't the mandatory challenger for any of the belts that Andre Ward currently holds, so not sure what you're point is.

Were it not for the IBF path, Barrera would be at least 2 fights removed from maybe getting a title shot, lol.

[DoktorSleepless]

The WBA is likely to make the Cleverly-Braehmer II winner their mandatory, Beterbiev is going to fight someone to be the IBF mandatory, and the WBO hardly ever even forces a mandatory.

Kovalev isn't the mandatory challenger for any of the belts that Andre Ward currently holds, so not sure what you're point is.

Were it not for the IBF path, Barrera would be at least 2 fights removed from maybe getting a title shot, lol.

You don't have to be a mandatory to fight anyone. Barrera fought Andre Ward without being a mandatory. There's no reason why HBO wouldn't want Kovalev to fight Barrera at some point. It's a fight they would be willing to buy. There's money there.

[Scipio2009]

You don't have to be a mandatory to fight anyone. Barrera fought Andre Ward without being a mandatory. There's no reason why HBO wouldn't want Kovalev to fight Barrera at some point. It's a fight they would be willing to buy. There's money there.

Kovalev-Barrera, outside of maybe in Russia, is a fight that doesn't sell 1500 tickets for any venue in the United States, and you know it.

With the little bit of money that HBO has free in their budget, to think that they'd put any sizable amount of money behind Kovalev-Barrera, knowing that Ward likely crosses the street if HBO backs Kovalev over him, is laughable.

[DoktorSleepless]

Kovalev-Barrera, outside of maybe in Russia, is a fight that doesn't sell 1500 tickets for any venue in the United States, and you know it.

That hasn't stopped Kovalev from fighting Mohammedi, Caparello, and Agnew in empty venues. Kovalev is an HBO staple, and he has to fight somebody. Barrera is the most obvious choice. It's not like there's many fighters to choose from.

[daggum]

no, to be fair to him he didnt duck him in the amatuers, fought him twice and got bashed up twice.

did you forget when beterbum turned down 500k to fight kovalev? years later and hes still fighting for 200k.

[daggum]

Kovalev-Barrera, outside of maybe in Russia, is a fight that doesn't sell 1500 tickets for any venue in the United States, and you know it.

With the little bit of money that HBO has free in their budget, to think that they'd put any sizable amount of money behind Kovalev-Barrera, knowing that Ward likely crosses the street if HBO backs Kovalev over him, is laughable.

and you think hbo wants to keep dealing with ward...is nearly impossible to deal with since he simply wont fight good fighters unless he gets some kind of huge amazing deal that drains their budget. on top of that no one wants to watch him. oh no please dont leaveee

[Scipio2009]

That hasn't stopped Kovalev from fighting Mohammedi, Caparello, and Agnew in empty venues. Kovalev is an HBO staple, and he has to fight somebody. Barrera is the most obvious choice. It's not like there's many fighters to choose from.

HBO was willing to take those L's because Kovalev had three belts and , pre-Saul Alvarez coming over, had committed their boxing franchise behind featuring Golovkin, Kovalev, and Lomachenko.

Kovalev, with the Ward L on his record and no world title belts around his waist, would be quite unlikely to get any type of serious investment from HBO, especially knowing that he can't move tickets.

WBC champ Adonis Stevenson is on the other side, WBA/IBF/WBO champ Andre Ward is looking to be on the verge of heading to the other side; Beterbiev (IBF top challenger), Cleverly (wba champ and WBA top challenger), Elieder Alvarez (WBC top challenger), Marcus Browne, Andrzej Fonfara, and Badou Jack are on the other side. Sean Monaghan seems to have linked up with Lou DiBella and Joe Smith Jr is with Joe DeGuardia (who does a ton of business with Lou in New York), and that's before counting the fast rising international talents with no current allegiance to a broadcaster in the US.

Why does he "have to fight somebody", when near all of the juice in the division is not with HBO?

Floyd has Gervonta Davis, IBF 130lb champ, in a division where 9 of the top 10 fighters at the weight are on the other side of the fence.

Floyd's seeming plan to work around that? Take Davis on the road, fighting him against his mandatory where it likely made the most money, and then keeping the talk focused on simply developing Davis into the best fighter that he can be (with no doubt having eyes on solid enough guys like Jhonny Gonzalez, Fernando David Saucedo, Martin Joseph Ward, and Billy Dib, or even the novelty of fighting JuanMa Lopez, and fighting Tevin Farmer.

Showtime won't likely be interesting in broadcasting any of those fights on their own (even though he's got talent, the only one I see coming close would be a Farmer fight, and even that's pretty sketch), but Floyd/Haymon are connected enough that getting the fight placed as a co-feature to another big fight, (or simply helping draw the audience for another meaningful fight that doesn't really have a place to draw from) shouldn't be too difficult a workaround.

Sergey Kovalev without a single world title around his waist (and the paths to getting one far from easy, for him or HBO) is worth far less to HBO than you seem to want to acknowledge