According to BøxingScene, Stevenson is signed to a multi-fight contract with HBO. So he can't jump ship, at least not immediately. Adonis says he wants more than $1M to fight Kovalev.
I think that's plenty fair. Both Stevenson and Kovalev are wildly underpaid given their level and fan-pleasing styles.
I'm not sure that they're 'wildly underpaid', to be honest I've never seen any numbers as far as how much Stevenson or Kovalev have made in any of their fights. But I agree that it's fair.
Stevenson over rates himself. No one knows who Kovalev or Stevenson are.... How the f*ck do you expect to get paid "millions"?
Al Haymon has no deal with either network. I think hes more of an organizer/manager who gets the most amount of money for these guys.
Pretty sure Kovalev only got paid in handshakes. Maybe Adonis negotiated better and got fist bumps or "props".
Adonis not being given the benefit of the doubt. Here you have an ex con who cleaned up his life and became a championship boxer that came out of nowhere. Won the LHW lineal title via KO1 and destroyed two other top 10 contenders in the same calender year. He's nearly 37 and naturally wants to make some money. He will fight Kovalev. He's called out Ward, obviously he's not intending on fighting cream puffs and he's been a stand up gentleman outside of the ring. He gets no respect for not losing a single round in 2013 and winning the lineal championship in the process. Ridiculous. Kovalev fans also massively overrate the guy, Adonis will destroy him.
I don't think Adonis destroys Kovalev, but everything else, I agree with. He's got the benefit of the doubt from me, and signing Haymon isn't enough to make me question it.
Haymon works with both HBO and Showtime, so now Ward should explain why he refuses to even answer Stevenson's call-out, even saying he will fight Ward at 168.................Ward's fans do not want him to fight Stevenson though.........
Adonis' contract with HBO is 1 year for up to 7 million dollars. You guys got to be kidding yourself if you think that Adonis is going to make more money then 7 mil for three fights fighting for Haymon. Adonis certainly isn't that stupid. This contract is about one thing and one thing only => getting paid reasonably similar money and not having to face kovelev. Adonis today said that he still plans on fighting kovelev but give it a couple of months and watch how quickly adonis starts angling to get out of that fight. My guess is that he sits out most of the HBO contract and then picks things up with showtime a year from now. I'll be very surprised if he honors the whole thing.