After his November homecoming was cancelled, it’s looking increasingly likely that Russian WBA/WBO/IBF light heavyweight champion, Sergey Kovalev, will rematch Canada’s Jean Pascal on Jan. 30 instead.
The plan is for the Pascal rematch to be the first of a 3-fight schedule that will culminate in a clash with Oakland’s unbeaten P4P star Andre Ward later next year – himself set to embark on a similar deal on HBO, ostensibly beginning on next month’s Cotto/Canelo undercard.
Speaking to ESPN.com, Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva insisted that in an ideal world Pascal would have fought WBC champion, Adonis Stevenson, with the winner then facing Kovalev, although according to the Main Events CEO, it is once again Stevenson’s camp who have refused to play ball.
“We tried very hard, through [Pascal’s promoters] Jean Bedard and Pierre Duc of InterBox during recent weeks, to come to an agreement for [ Adonis] Stevenson to fight Pascal in December or January, and for the winner to fight Sergey in the spring of 2016,” she said.
“Sadly, [Saturday’s] deadline has passed without acceptance from the Stevenson [team], so Sergey and Pascal must move on, and we are now talking about Sergey versus Pascal II in January.”
Stevenson’s promoter Yvon Michel claimed that they were not in a position to accept or decline the offer from Main Events within the given timeframe, and that they will seek to keep Adonis busy while he does indeed looks to face the winner of Kov/Pascal II, sometime next year.
Kovalev previously stopped Pascal inside 8 rounds back in March. A site for the January rematch is still to be determined.
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