Stevenson: Bring Me Kovalev

I'm sure the money is nothing to sneeze at. But without the tv money, these things go absolutely nowhere.

As for Kovalev's opponents, Cloud or Dawson? Why would Dawson or Cloud sign on? Kovalev not being a money guy, I can't see the coin being produced to entice either guy to take a beating. Both will probably be looking to rebuild their careers, and in Dawson's case, who even knows. If he fights again, it'll probably be against Roy Jones or Glen Johnson again or something.
Kovalev will probably get Chilemba or someone like that.

So, you're saying Quebecers think the boxing world revolves around them?? I thought that was strictly an American thing.

I think you'll eventually realize that this is less about growing the fight and more about prolonging the title reign and getting some more money before taking a major risk. Not to say Stevenson will definitely lose(although I think he will), he can do some things that will trouble Kovalev IMO.

 

While Pascal & Bute are recovering, yes, absolutely Cloud is the Kovalev opponent that would entice the most Quebecers to go to the Bell Centre for a Stevenson-Fonfara / Kovalev fight event. They have tunnel vision on their own fighters and rarely educate themselves (I'm talking casual fans, who actually constitute the majority of bums in seats @ Bell Centre) on the who's who of a given division outside the local fighters and the opponents they've fought in the past.

Roy Jones? Glen Johnson? They're not fighting at LHW anymore, I'm sure you knew that.

Eleider Alvarez is the other LHW who's somewhat popular in QC and he's fighting Tommy Gun on the Pascal-Bute card, in a title eliminator... might be WBO/Kovalev, I don't remember.

Hopkins and Froch are not options anymore, so how is building a Kovalev fight to get a Pascal/Bute-like attendance @ Bell Centre a way to simply "prolong his reign"? I don't see it. What I see is GYM actually building Kovalev to be discussed on rds.ca, tvasports.ca, lapresse.ca, etc by putting him time and again on a Stevenson card, better yet against former opponents of Stevenson's for the QC folks to compare. That will add to the total revenues of a potential Stevenson-Kovalev fight, and yes that will eventually be a proper payday for Stevenson.

 

I think your missing my point. It doesn't matter all that much if the fight has 6k or 18k in Quebec or elsewhere. I think you are making a mistake if you're thinking all this is to build up the amount of people they put in the seats.

I said Jones or Johnson for Dawson because I think that is the type of fight Dawson would be looking for. Make some money, small risk. His heart's not in the fight anymore.

To me the chances of Cloud taking a fight with Kovalev after 2 losses are slim to nonexistent.

I don't know if Alvarez is in the mix or not, but they'd be sacrificing him, and I'm not so sure they'd that. It's better than most of the options out there.

I'm not saying Stevenson is ducking him flat out, but i do believe they are trying to make some money before risking a fight with Kovalev. I don't blame them, it's good business, but it is what it is.

 

Cloud's literally got nothing to lose. Might as well oblige Main Events and Kov. :conf

I don't think GYM will be making any more money with Fonfara than they would with anybody else, the point is they will be making a whole lot more money with Stevenson-Kovalev after the QC media & fans get all hyped up about Kovalev. Right now it's not the case. I think you're still underestimating the Bell Centre gate and Quebec PPV revenues. They need to build it up, and that's what a second appearance of Kovalev on a QC card will do.

 

10,000 more bums (from 8,000 to 18,000) at 150$ in average is 1,5 millions $ more in revenue. HBO brings probably more, but you can go without a HBO contract with little damage.

Quebec is red hot right now (Stevenson, Stiverne, Pascal, Bute, Berbetiev who beated Kovalev in the ams, Lemieux, Zewsky, Alvarez) That has a crazy amount of talent, and 5 guys amongs the 15 best (or close to) in the 175 division.

 

When asked, on National TV, Stevenson refused to call out Kovalev. Stevenson said nothing. Stevenson has called out Ward, said he would go down to 168 if needed, but Ward does not want to fight him. Kovalev said after his last fight that he wanted to fight Stevenson. Hopkins said that he will never fight Kovalev or Stevenson. Kovalev was Hopkins' mandatory, but Hopkins refused to fight him, so Kovalev went into Cleverly's home turf, knocked him out and won the WBO title.............

 

Kovalev will whoop that ass.... I like both of them and I kind of want them to wait so neither one fades off....

 

Kov - killed someone
Stevenson - ******
Hopkins - spent time in jail

 

They both have contracts with HBO....and you can bet that HBO execs are finding the CASH to make this happen. The world wants to see Kovalev doing his seeking and destroying.....PERIOD. And we'd prefer he did it to Stevenson NEXT.

 

So Cloud, having nothing to lose, other than his career (because a 3rd consecutive loss, particularly with the most likely scenario being a beatdown, is likely to signal the end), should oblige Main Event and Kovalev so as to build up Kovalev's Quebec resume so the fairweather fans there will recognize him and may come out in force and fill 10k more seats in the event their guy decides to take the fight a year from now? Is that the thrust of your argument?

Maybe I am underestimate the Bell Centre money and Quebec revenues, but this isn't about just Quebec's money. HBO is the big dog. What was Stevenson's response when asked about the fight? HBO had to put up the money.

And I highly doubt that it is HBO wanting to make sure that Quebec gets 18k seats filled. They put Kovalev on the card with Stevenson for their own reasons, which more than likely was to make this fight next. Not build the fight up for a year with both guys fighting stay busy fights for Quebec's ultimate benefit.

Which is why I say they are milking it. Are you telling me they couldn't fill the Bell with a 3 month media blitz and promotion?

It seems the only side that doesn't seem to want this next is Stevenson and his camp. Why else the reason for the shell game? And that is so they can make some more $ in the interim. Before the real risk comes in. Again, it's smart business. But call it what it is.

 

And what happens if either guy loses, or gets hurt? It happens.

 

Trust me Stevenson is overrated. He was CAUGHT in his last fight. Best in Quebec is Bute, then Pascal. They are respectable boxers.

 

Yes it is, and Cloud doesn't have anywhere to go from here. He's basically fukked. That's why he wouldn't have much of a choice but to accept a make-or-break fight against Kovalev.

From there, the potential Quebec PPV audience for a Stevenson-Kovalev card builds up and so does the live/gate audience. At $80/PPV like it has been in the past here in Canada, that's a shitload of money they can count on in addition to the mil or two that a full gate would generate. That's the smart business aspect.

And no, a 3 month "media blitz" wouldn't do much for Kovalev to be portrayed as a beast in Quebec. They need Kovalev to be as known as Hopkins was when he fought Pascal, and for that you need education through fights - something that a Kov KO2 Cloud highlight reel on RDS and TVA would help accomplish. BHop had the legend aspect going for him, Kovalev needs the boogeyman aspect to be built for him. Another spectacular win or two, in QC, will do the work just fine.

As it stands, "sports fans" in general in QC have no fukkin clue who Sergey Kovalev is. A few hundreds of hardcore fans do, that's it. GYM (and Main Events) need to change that for this big fight to be as profitable as can be.

 

I think you're looking at this from a very Quebec point of view. I don't see Cloud taking a fight with Kovalev. I see him taking on someone far less punishing. Someone he can begin to rebuild with. And honestly, coming off 2 dominant losses, one non-competitive, how viable an opponent is he?(to everyone else).

I definitely don't see Dawson taking the fight.

Which leads us back to square one. Who's Kovalev gonna fight to build his name for Quebecers? Maybe he doesn't even fight in Quebec. What happens then?

 

stevenson had a good run, time to retire.