Comments Thread For: Kovalev is Pulling For Badou Jack To Defeat Adonis Stevenson
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April 15, 2015:
Just when it looked like the path was relatively clear for the light heavyweight unification showdown between champion Adonis Stevenson and three-belt owner Sergey Kovalev, a big wrench was thrown in the plans on Tuesday.
The fight is by far the most anticipated in the 175-pound weight class, but the chances that it comes off this fall as many hoped were greatly diminished when Main Events CEO Kathy Duva, Kovalev's promoter, decided against participating in a WBC-mandated purse bid on Friday in Mexico City.
The WBC, whose belt Stevenson holds, made the very unusual move of making the winner of the Kovalev-Jean Pascal fight on March 14, which Kovalev won by eighth-round knockout, the mandatory challenger for Stevenson.
Sanctioning bodies do not rank other organizations' titleholders, but WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said he wanted to see the fight happen for the good of boxing and made the move, which was music to Kovalev's ears because he has been chasing Stevenson for more than a year. Last year, Main Events thought they had a deal only to watch as Stevenson, under the guidance of adviser Al Haymon, went in another direction and got crushed for it in the court of public opinion.
But after Stevenson (26-1, 21 KOs), 37, of Montreal, retained the title by one-sided decision against Sakio Bika on April 4, he and promoter Yvon Michel, whom Kovalev and Duva had accused of ducking the fight, professed their desire to make the match, be it to negotiate terms or let it go to a purse bid, where the promoter with the biggest offer would win the promotional rights.
Then Duva announced that she would not participate in the bidding process, which came as a surprise considering how much she dogged Stevenson for supposedly avoiding the fight.
Duva, the one who initially suggested that the WBC make Kovalev the mandatory at the organization's annual convention late last year, said that while she and Kovalev very much want to make the fight, Kovalev is under exclusive contract to HBO, which would not allow him to fight on another network. Stevenson is backed by Haymon, who could bankroll a big bid by Michel and put the fight on Showtime or one of the networks on which his Premier Boxing Champions series appears, such as NBC, CBS or ESPN, whose deal begins in July.
Most believe that if the fight did go a purse bid, Main Events would have no prayer of winning because even if HBO backed the bid it would not be enough to beat Haymon, whose PBC investor war chest is believed to be worth far more than $100 million...
Duva also wrote to Michel and outlined a proposal to make the fight without the purse bid but insisting the fight be on HBO.
"Sergey has a contract with HBO and he will be fighting on HBO. If Adonis doesn't want to do that, God bless him," she told ESPN.com. "Sergey is the best light heavyweight in the world. If Adonis wants to prove he's the best he's going to have to fight Sergey and he's going to have to do it on terms that are doable under Sergey's HBO contract."
Not so fast, Michel said.
"Bring the proposal from HBO and I bring a proposal from a PBC-affiliated network and we go where it has the most value," he said. "I'm willing to negotiate but she has to be willing to maximize the revenue. If she doesn't want to do that then stop trying to make everyone believe we tried to avoid Kovalev. When the WBC decided to name the winner of Kovalev-Pascal the mandatory we were on board and we are not backing out. Let's go with the network that can put up the most money."
http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/i...urse-bid-orderComment
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It's funny I wonder how many of your posts are just you being a **** insulting people. A big reason why I have so few posts is that don't post complete nonsense such as simply calling people idiots. Apparently your definition of common knowledge is twisted, since you're talking about common opinion. Let's just agree to disagree. I know I can't possibly have the boxing knowledge you do since your ego is massive and you've named yourself the boxing goatI'm not upset at all. This is fairy tale world as far as I'm concerned.
And my statement about newbies/casuals goes for anyone who knows very little about boxing. Not just you. And, just because you have an old account where you post a few times a month or so doesn't mean you really follow the sport and no matter how closely you follow, you don't follow as close to me or have even half the boxing knowledge as me. Again, it's all common knowledge that Kovalev has tried to make this fight and Stevenson fights bums while ducking him.
Have a nice day
You have a nice day as well.
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Kovalev was an HBO fighter and Stevenson and his promoters knew it. They also knew that Kovalev couldn't be ranked in the WBC because he was already a multi-belt titlist for other organizations. That article is more smoke and mirror games by Stevenson's camp to appear as though they weren't avoiding the fight when he purposely resigned with Showtime when he knew that fight was coming up.April 15, 2015:
Just when it looked like the path was relatively clear for the light heavyweight unification showdown between champion Adonis Stevenson and three-belt owner Sergey Kovalev, a big wrench was thrown in the plans on Tuesday.
The fight is by far the most anticipated in the 175-pound weight class, but the chances that it comes off this fall as many hoped were greatly diminished when Main Events CEO Kathy Duva, Kovalev's promoter, decided against participating in a WBC-mandated purse bid on Friday in Mexico City.
The WBC, whose belt Stevenson holds, made the very unusual move of making the winner of the Kovalev-Jean Pascal fight on March 14, which Kovalev won by eighth-round knockout, the mandatory challenger for Stevenson.
Sanctioning bodies do not rank other organizations' titleholders, but WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said he wanted to see the fight happen for the good of boxing and made the move, which was music to Kovalev's ears because he has been chasing Stevenson for more than a year. Last year, Main Events thought they had a deal only to watch as Stevenson, under the guidance of adviser Al Haymon, went in another direction and got crushed for it in the court of public opinion.
But after Stevenson (26-1, 21 KOs), 37, of Montreal, retained the title by one-sided decision against Sakio Bika on April 4, he and promoter Yvon Michel, whom Kovalev and Duva had accused of ducking the fight, professed their desire to make the match, be it to negotiate terms or let it go to a purse bid, where the promoter with the biggest offer would win the promotional rights.
Then Duva announced that she would not participate in the bidding process, which came as a surprise considering how much she dogged Stevenson for supposedly avoiding the fight.
Duva, the one who initially suggested that the WBC make Kovalev the mandatory at the organization's annual convention late last year, said that while she and Kovalev very much want to make the fight, Kovalev is under exclusive contract to HBO, which would not allow him to fight on another network. Stevenson is backed by Haymon, who could bankroll a big bid by Michel and put the fight on Showtime or one of the networks on which his Premier Boxing Champions series appears, such as NBC, CBS or ESPN, whose deal begins in July.
Most believe that if the fight did go a purse bid, Main Events would have no prayer of winning because even if HBO backed the bid it would not be enough to beat Haymon, whose PBC investor war chest is believed to be worth far more than $100 million...
Duva also wrote to Michel and outlined a proposal to make the fight without the purse bid but insisting the fight be on HBO.
"Sergey has a contract with HBO and he will be fighting on HBO. If Adonis doesn't want to do that, God bless him," she told ESPN.com. "Sergey is the best light heavyweight in the world. If Adonis wants to prove he's the best he's going to have to fight Sergey and he's going to have to do it on terms that are doable under Sergey's HBO contract."
Not so fast, Michel said.
"Bring the proposal from HBO and I bring a proposal from a PBC-affiliated network and we go where it has the most value," he said. "I'm willing to negotiate but she has to be willing to maximize the revenue. If she doesn't want to do that then stop trying to make everyone believe we tried to avoid Kovalev. When the WBC decided to name the winner of Kovalev-Pascal the mandatory we were on board and we are not backing out. Let's go with the network that can put up the most money."
http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/i...urse-bid-order
HE'S A DUCKER! PERIOD!Last edited by Boxing Goat; 05-15-2018, 12:29 PM.Comment
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Kovalev was a free agent. They chose to re-up with HBO at a time where they could’ve easily made the fight.Kovalev was an HBO fighter and Stevenson and his promoters knew it. They also knew that Kovalev couldn't be ranked in the WBC because he was already a multi-belt titlist for other organizations already. That article is more smoke and mirror games by Stevenson's camp to appear as though they weren't avoiding the fight when he purposely resigned with Showtime when he knew that fight was coming up.
HE'S A DUCKER! PERIOD!Comment
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I'll admit that this post made me smile a little and while I can't fully respect your boxing opinion, I do respect your calmness under pressure.It's funny I wonder how many of your posts are just you being a **** insulting people. A big reason why I have so few posts is that don't post complete nonsense such as simply calling people idiots. Apparently your definition of common knowledge is twisted, since you're talking about common opinion. Let's just agree to disagree. I know I can't possibly have the boxing knowledge you do since your ego is massive and you've named yourself the boxing goat
You have a nice day as well.
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They were already an HBO fighter while Stevenson was a free agent afterwards. Then Stevenson resigned with SHO knowing that Kovalev was signed with HBO instead of exploring an HBO contract. I personally think it was because of Haymon and the Floyd thing against HBO, etc. I distinctly remember it because I really thought the fight was ready to happen. I'm not saying that Stevenson is scared of Kovalev personally but they were scared of the threat of losing that strap since he's a cash cow in Canada.
I should have made that clear earlier I suppose.Comment
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