Predictable: Kovalev vs Stevenson won't happen.

It was already agreed that it would be 50/50 no matter who won the purse bid. It makes Kovalev look bad knowing that.

 

Those Golovkin Title fights were shown on multiple Fox Sports channels in the U.S. (on DirecTV). I recorded them. In fact, they were replayed dozens of times because my DVR kept recording them.

BET is only available in the U.S., to my knowledge. And it's available in 90 million homes ... that's a helluva lot more homes than HBO is available in (like three times as many).

And Kovalev is "one" of their fighters. What's the precedent for NOT letting him fight a one-off bout away from HBO? They're letting another one of their "stars" - Ward - fight off HBO in June. That doesn't exactly help HBO's case in the matter.

I highly doubt there's anything in Kovalev's contract that says he "must" fight all his bouts on HBO, because that's not the case with anyone else.

If Kovalev wanted to press it, I don't see how HBO could do anything about it. I just think HBO and Duva are more worried about their own positions in the sport than with what's in Kovalev's best interests in this instance.

They aren't worried about boxing on Fox Sports or BET taking them over, and they aren't worried about K2 or Roc Nation squeezing them out. But they are worried about the PBC airing a Kovalev-Stevenson fight, because Kovalev will likely make more than he makes with HBO. (Hell Lamont Peterson makes more than Kovalev makes.)

Kovalev's getting some bad advice. And, frankly, I don't know how bright he actually is. Because he shouldn't allow it.

 

Just so you know Lennox Lewis had to drop a belt instead of fighting Byrd for a similar reason HBO

 

BET might reach more audiences than HBO but they won't get the boxing ratings HBO does, just like ESPN. They average 300-400 thousand where HBO does 2-3 times that but are in many less homes than ESPN.

BET and Fox Sports aren't rivals to HBO either but Showtime and PBC are. They will give the occasional ok to fight on a BET but aren't going to do so for Showtime.

That would be bad business by HBO to let their main rival make money off one of their top properties.

Dan Rafael just wrote another article and it quotes Stevenson's promoter. He said that he's been informed by Duva that Kovalev fights exclusively on HBO and can not fight for anyone else.

That's the reason they pushed for such a quick purse bid. They wanted to get the fight done before this happened.

 

Every article prior to Kovalev-Pascal noted it was the end of his HBO contract. If Kovalev is in fact still exclusively confined to HBO, it is simply because he and Duva chose to make it that way well after they knew about the mandatory situation.

 

of course it will. beterbiev has been hired to protect stevenson from kovalev.

 

the problem being haymon has produced nothing but garbage cards so far.

 

I long for the days when NBC and NBC Sports instead brought us Adamek and Glazkov robberies promoted by Main Events.

 

hardly robberies. just three irrelevant fighters who bored audiences to death.

 

This is right they did already know about the mandatory position it doesn't look good for Kovalev at all. I'm sorry if people here called Stevenson a ducker before I don't know how he's getting a pass now. I thought Stevenson ducked before and it's funny because it's kind of the same situation.

 

This encapsulates the issue more concisely, eliminating the specious reasoning such as the ludicrous BET angle that was presented.

 

pretty stupid of duva. this kind of garbage, from both promoters, is why next to no one cares about boxing anymore.

 

How is Beterbiev protecting Stevenson from Kovalev when it was Kovalevs camp that pulled out. Not only did they agree to 50/50 but both parties agreed that whoever won chose the venue and network before Kovalev signed again to HBO giving them exclusivity. I'm sorry but this Beterbiev is protecting Stevenson line is null and void. Stevensons team is still going to where the purse bid is being held. If Kovalevs team doesn't show up it's on him. The WBC will then choose a different mandatory.

 

Yea it is I don't like Stevenson but I can't call him a ducker when Kovalevs team is pulling the same garbage. They either both ducked eachother Stevenson before and Kovalev now or they didn't.

 

stevenson-kovalev is probably never getting made. neither is stevenson-beterbiev. i'd bet kovalev-beterbiev does very soon though.