He has had his fair share of heat over Adonis Stevenson as of late, yet Main Events chief Kathy Duva has come to the defence of her fighter – WBO, WBA & IBF 175lb champion Sergey Kovalev – and spoken to fighthype.com to further clarify their position regarding any potential fight, saying “Adonis needs to make up his mind” whether or not he really wants to get in the ring with the Russian puncher.
With the main sticking point being the respective television deals of the fighters, it would appear that Duva will not back down over the fight needing to be on her broadcaster HBO – something that could crucially prevent it from happening.
Of further negotiations and the likelihood of the Stevenson fight happening, Duva is clear.
She said;
“We have made a proposal to (promoter) Yvon Michel – I haven’t heard back from him. It’ll happen when they realize the only way it’s gonna happen is on HBO. And when they do they’ll decide whether Adonis Stevenson wants to be remembered as the guy who never fought Sergey Kovalev or if he wants to take the fight.”
Despite the influence of adviser Al Haymon on Adonis, Duva is confident if it does come together she will get her own way. It is apparent which fighter holds all the cards. At least in terms of titles – Kovalev holding 3/4. If Stevenson does not fight Sergey soon, it will also make even more of a mockery of his lineal champion status – bestowed on him after the Chad Dawson fight 2 years ago.
“It will happen either on HBO or HBO PPV and Adonis is coming up on his 38th birthday so he really needs to make up his mind soon.”
With previous stalled negotiations from before Adonis signed with Haymon and went to Showtime and the potential bad blood ruining any further talks, Duva was dismissive yet ready to concede that there is no room for personal feelings in business.
“If you can’t put your (personal) feelings aside in this business then you can’t be in it. We were upset at the time (early 2014) as that was the fight that was going to launch Sergey’s career. As it turns out, he got the fight with Hopkins, we got the fight with Pascal. He’s quite well launched at this point.”
“In the end it worked out just fine. I’ve watched Sergey’s stock rise and Adonis’ decline, so I’m not worried at all.”
Twitter @Undilutedpoison
