You couldn't have tried harder to find a way to overlook the main reason why this fight fell apart and it had nothing to do with anyone but Adonis Stevenson. You must be a defense lawyer or a wanna be ambulance chaser because this is some fine tap dancing that might actually get one or two jurors to vote to acquit with your reasoning but one or two fans does not win you an argument here.Enlightened-One wrote:Adonis Stevenson didn't "jump ship" to avoid Sergey Kovalev.caldo2025 wrote:So wait, are you claiming that Adonis didn't "BUTCHER" the first proposed meeting between Kovalev and Adonis? The one where it was all said and done pretty much except for signatures and Adonis jumped networks all of sudden knowing that HBO would never work with SHO? You are talking about that one right? Are you referring to when Kovalev was negotiating with Ward and they both scheduled tune ups prior to the big fight. That is essentially a one year contract with another boxer. Of course Chickenson would make all sorts of offers during a time in which Kovalev couldn't accept or would be dumb to. Please expound a little more on this theory because once again, smarter people than you in the sport have opposing views of the truth when it comes to Adonis and his clown moves.Enlightened-One wrote: When Stevenson defeated Chad Dawson, he captured his WBC world light heavyweight title from a man competing in his natural habitat that was also considered The Ring champion, whilst universally-regarded by the media as the very best 175lb-er on the planet.
It is an irrefutable fact that Sergey Kovalev turned down a guaranteed opportunity to face Adonis Stevenson. There are copious amounts of YouTube videos of Kathy Duva going to all sorts of painstaking lengths to explain the reason why Sergey felt compelled to “duck” his WBC champion rival.
It is categorically impossible for any sane human possessing mental capacity and at least moderate intellect to dispute this fúckíng irrefutable real-world fact!
That’s the only reason why people from this forum choose to insult me when I persistently remind everyone of this fact, is because they are embarrassed about Kovalev refusing to accept a guaranteed shot at Stevenson, which the Canadian-based WBC champ had wholeheartedly committed himself to!
Here are Dan Rafael’s own words he used to explain the reason why the Stevenson-Smith Jr. fight didn’t materialise: “the Smith camp butchered the deal.”
Stevenson's contract with HBO had expired and Haymon managed to secure him a more lucrative deal with Showtime.
Adonis and Haymon gave HBO an opportunity to outbid their rival network, but they chose not to... so HBO's own decision removed the possibility of a Stevenson-Kovalev fight.
Prior to that, HBO had previously announced to the media that they would refuse to work with Haymon ever again, unless it involved a marquee super-fight... and they even communicated this to the media. This was also cited during GBP's failed lawsuit against Haymon.
So this led to Haymon's fighters ultimately being unable to compete against anyone affiliated to HBO.
When Kovalev's own contract had eventually expired with HBO, Kathy Duva lobbied the WBC to instate Sergey as Adonis Stevenson's mandatory challenger (since the Russian was technically a network free agent at that particular point in time).
Kathy Duva had previously filed her own failed lawsuit against Haymon and her relationship with GYM was poor, so the mandated bout went straight to purse bids, instead of contract negotiation.
Kathy Duva then complained about the WBC's stipulated deadlines, telling everyone that they were unreasonable.
So the WBC caved into her demands and actually extended the deadlines.
Meanwhile, whilst all this was going on, Kathy Duva was negotiating with HBO to renew Kovalev's contract.
When HBO and Kathy had agreed the terms of their new contract, she immediately withdrew Kovalev from the WBC's purse bid process, claiming that she wasn't allowed to participate, in case she was outbid, since Sergey was exclusively tied to HBO - meaning that he was forbidden from competing on a rival network.
Since then, Kathy Duva has repeatedly claimed that a fight between Stevenson and Kovalev could now only take place if it was exclusively televised by HBO, regardless as to whether Showtime/GYM/Haymon could provide Sergey with a better payday by "crossing the street" for a one-off fight with Stevenson on Showtime.
Everything I've stated has been confirmed by all parties and is easily verifiable.
Regardless his reasons, Kovalev actually ducked Stevenson and no amount of diversionary tactics or insults can disprove this real-world fact!
You're obviously intent of blaming Stevenson for the dodgy shenanigans of HBO, Kathy Duva and Sergey Kovalev, whilst flatly-refusing to research and qualify the accuracy of your derogatory claims.
Therefore, you've become a fûckîng uneducated Lemming that decides to ride the bandwagon of ignorance ridden by the lazy mainstream masses, whereby a whole host of imbeciles buy into absolute fûckîng lies and exceptionally embellished half-truths... and that's an issue that only you have chosen to live with.
Michel, Duva and HBO negotiated and agreed to splits and terms prior to the tune up fights and the fight was set to go for the Fall. Adonis's own promoter urged him to sign the deal but he would not. He inexplicably decided to stiff Michel and the work that was put in negotiating what would be this fighters most profitable fight in his career and sign with a promoter in Haymon that would absolutely eliminate the chance that this fight takes place.
Duva and Kovalev negotiated in good faith with Adonis's representation at the time. What else could they have done? Promoters agreed to terms and splits, that's the hard part. it's game on normally. Michel urged Adonis to sign the deal and he wouldn't. Adonis has been making chump change in every single fight compared to the dollars that were staring at him in the face in this one so we know that it wasn't about the money. Adonis got scared and did the only thing that he could do to get him out of facing Serge, sign with Haymon out of nowhere. That's it. He knew what that move meant and so do you. The chances of these parties negotiating a deal at all was minuscule never mind in time for a fight in the Fall of that year. No shot.
So again, you may have some luck in a court of law with this defense by snowballing one white trash juror with a 3rd grade education but you won't and haven't even come close to changing anyone's perception about this. One person made this fight impossible to make and it was Adonis, no one else.