BoxRec

kovalev will tko this dude inside 5 rounds and everybody is gonne start again about him against stevenson and both gonne talk about how much they want the fight and than nothing will happen.

so this scum haymon wants stevenson to fight nobodys like sukontsky and bika, this is it? only tomato cans? so this makes sense on the financiel side?

instead of filling a big arena in canada or making a ppv fight on hbo or showtime?

Would you want to go through all that enduring hard work fighting Kovalev???

There's your answer!

bnovelist wrote:Would you want to go through all that enduring hard work fighting Kovalev???

There's your answer!

come on bno, if anybody has a chance beating serguy, than it is stevenson. i mean, everybody talks about kovalev, like he is the only one at LH with big time power, but believe me stevenson can one punch KO anybody when he lands a good one. on top, stevenson is more athletic and has better footwork, better upper body movemant than serguy. i am not favouring adonis, but if ad comes into great shape, than its a close fight.

kovalev = hbo
stevenson = showtime
they came close to having this fight signed before they both signed their tv deals.
it always comes down to $$$. if there is enough $$$ they will fight.
i think it will happen within a year, because it is the biggest fight for both guys
and would earn them several times more than they could make fighting anyone
else, probably the most money by far either will ever get for a fight in their careers.

Kovalev's people (Main Events) went to the WBC to request mandatory challenger status to Kovalev. The WBC, being a organization still paying out millions to Graciano Roccigiani legitimately and to themselves possibly illegitimately, constantly require money, and miraculously made the decision to allow a man who was not ranked by their organization and who had several belts with other orgs to obtain that status. The end game seemed smart for Main Events; force Al Haymon to drop the belt, Kovalev could then collect it, and claim true undisputed champ status while Stevenson sat at home, beltless and disgraced.

Funny thing happened though on the way to that massive win: Al Haymon and his folks decided they'd let it go to pure bid and that they'd pony up the money to win. Tens of millions would be injected into a fight that simply doesn't generate that kind of income. Was there a risk with that? Yeah. They could lose legitimately in the ring, Kovalev would have all the belts, and still not be in Haymon's camp. Also, Main Events *at the same time* was openly flaunting that Sergei Kovalev was to be a promotional free agent thanks to his HBO contract running out. They'd have matching rights vs. another network contract, but there are no other suitors which exist for such a contract to begin with, as all of Haymon's fighters do not have long term contracts with any specific entities that aren't he and Haymon Boxing.

The week of the purse bid, Main Events pulled out. They announced that they'd resign with HBO and that Al Haymon should contact them and HBO and work out a deal based on whatever HBO would pay. HBO would pay less than Haymon was willing to off HBO, and also there's the whole "HBO doesn't deal with Al Haymon" thing. In effect, Main Events was rejecting the fight and the purse bid which they could have competed for and perhaps won. As they described afterwards, they felt it was in their best interests to sign Sergei Kovalev up to a long term contract to HBO with guaranteed fights and pay rather than take the fight with Stevenson, and they furthered this earlier in the week with Kathy Duva claiming that soon PBC/Haymon will be out of money and then they can take whoever they want anyways.

If you approach it from the perspective of Haymon instead; Kovalev could have made 5-7-10 million off the Haymon bid on a Stevenson fight, and he'll be lucky to bank half a million off his current HBO deal for most of his fights. He would have made more in one night potentially winning the world title than he will fighting other Main Event scrubs in empty arenas. He could have re-upped with HBO immediately afterwards too and possibly for more money as the conquering champion. However, Main Events in that scenario shoulders all the risk, in that if Kovalev loses, they have no marketable fighters to get on HBO, which is the only network they believe they can do business with in the current environment (largely a product of their own gross incompetence). From that perspective then, Main Events had Kovalev sign a contract that isn't in his best interests to serve their's. They made Kovalev duck Stevenson to protect their own bank accounts.

TL;DR version - Kovalev could have fought Stevenson this year but Main Events put themselves first.

also FTR: I don't think Kovalev is afraid of Stevenson at all. I think he wants the fight. I think it would be violent and Kovalev would win. Kovalev isn't the problem. The problem is Minor Events using him as a bargaining chip to keep their crappy company afloat. The only thing that impresses me with them is the regular audacity they show in ridiculing PBC for papering shows (giving away tickets) when they know full well they've spent years running primarily casinos or having Ziggy Rozalski sell/give tickets away for them. ME hasn't had to and will continue to not sell tickets on their own merit because they are garbage at it and have always been garbage at it.

zorndeslammes wrote:Kovalev's people (Main Events) went to the WBC to request mandatory challenger status to Kovalev. The WBC, being a organization still paying out millions to Graciano Roccigiani legitimately and to themselves possibly illegitimately, constantly require money, and miraculously made the decision to allow a man who was not ranked by their organization and who had several belts with other orgs to obtain that status. The end game seemed smart for Main Events; force Al Haymon to drop the belt, Kovalev could then collect it, and claim true undisputed champ status while Stevenson sat at home, beltless and disgraced.

Funny thing happened though on the way to that massive win: Al Haymon and his folks decided they'd let it go to pure bid and that they'd pony up the money to win. Tens of millions would be injected into a fight that simply doesn't generate that kind of income. Was there a risk with that? Yeah. They could lose legitimately in the ring, Kovalev would have all the belts, and still not be in Haymon's camp. Also, Main Events *at the same time* was openly flaunting that Sergei Kovalev was to be a promotional free agent thanks to his HBO contract running out. They'd have matching rights vs. another network contract, but there are no other suitors which exist for such a contract to begin with, as all of Haymon's fighters do not have long term contracts with any specific entities that aren't he and Haymon Boxing.

The week of the purse bid, Main Events pulled out. They announced that they'd resign with HBO and that Al Haymon should contact them and HBO and work out a deal based on whatever HBO would pay. HBO would pay less than Haymon was willing to off HBO, and also there's the whole "HBO doesn't deal with Al Haymon" thing. In effect, Main Events was rejecting the fight and the purse bid which they could have competed for and perhaps won. As they described afterwards, they felt it was in their best interests to sign Sergei Kovalev up to a long term contract to HBO with guaranteed fights and pay rather than take the fight with Stevenson, and they furthered this earlier in the week with Kathy Duva claiming that soon PBC/Haymon will be out of money and then they can take whoever they want anyways.

If you approach it from the perspective of Haymon instead; Kovalev could have made 5-7-10 million off the Haymon bid on a Stevenson fight, and he'll be lucky to bank half a million off his current HBO deal for most of his fights. He would have made more in one night potentially winning the world title than he will fighting other Main Event scrubs in empty arenas. He could have re-upped with HBO immediately afterwards too and possibly for more money as the conquering champion. However, Main Events in that scenario shoulders all the risk, in that if Kovalev loses, they have no marketable fighters to get on HBO, which is the only network they believe they can do business with in the current environment (largely a product of their own gross incompetence). From that perspective then, Main Events had Kovalev sign a contract that isn't in his best interests to serve their's. They made Kovalev duck Stevenson to protect their own bank accounts.

TL;DR version - Kovalev could have fought Stevenson this year but Main Events put themselves first.

thank you for the good answer

so main events dont 100 % believe in kovalev, otherwise they would have put him infront the arguably best lh in the world.

Chepppaaa wrote:
thank you for the good answer

so main events dont 100 % believe in kovalev, otherwise they would have put him infront the arguably best lh in the world.

It doesn't matter if they do. He gets cut in an exchange or his knee blows out when he's hit with a jab, and their cash cow is gone. Their next biggest stars are Czar Glazkov (trash) and Curtis Stevens. Without HBO being willing to show those guys in undercard contests, they can't pay for those fights and they're doomed. Might have been smart not to have mouthed off about Stephen Espinosa and Showtime so much since they might have found some space with ShoBox should Espinosa get called up to CBS, but they don't really think like that. They got caught playing checkers when others played chess and cried foul. The end result? Mohammedi/Kovalev. Next up will be Chilemba giving up his mandatory status with Stevenson when that fight threatens to go to purse bid.

zorndeslammes wrote:

Chepppaaa wrote:
thank you for the good answer

so main events dont 100 % believe in kovalev, otherwise they would have put him infront the arguably best lh in the world.

It doesn't matter if they do. He gets cut in an exchange or his knee blows out when he's hit with a jab, and their cash cow is gone. Their next biggest stars are Czar Glazkov (trash) and Curtis Stevens. Without HBO being willing to show those guys in undercard contests, they can't pay for those fights and they're doomed. Might have been smart not to have mouthed off about Stephen Espinosa and Showtime so much since they might have found some space with ShoBox should Espinosa get called up to CBS, but they don't really think like that. They got caught playing checkers when others played chess and cried foul. The end result? Mohammedi/Kovalev. Next up will be Chilemba giving up his mandatory status with Stevenson when that fight threatens to go to purse bid.

interesting, it makes sense what u are sayn.

Chepppaaa wrote:

bnovelist wrote:Would you want to go through all that enduring hard work fighting Kovalev???

There's your answer!

come on bno, if anybody has a chance beating serguy, than it is stevenson. i mean, everybody talks about kovalev, like he is the only one at LH with big time power, but believe me stevenson can one punch KO anybody when he lands a good one. on top, stevenson is more athletic and has better footwork, better upper body movemant than serguy. i am not favouring adonis, but if ad comes into great shape, than its a close fight.

You are right, If Stevenson connects him, is gonna go down, but the reverse is also true. Stevenson does not have a very good chin, not like Pascal, for instance.

But there is another one who can and will beat Kovalev : Arthur Beterbiev