By Dan Ambrose: It looks like boxing fans can forget all about a potential unification fight between IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson this year.
Stevenson is saying that he’s got his contract with Showtime, and the only way that the fight can take place is if Kovalev is able to get HBO to work out a deal with Showtime for the two networks to televise the fight. Kovalev has already set the conditions for the fight with Stevenson by saying that he needs to fight him on HBO.
Stevenson feels that he’s the WBC champion and he doesn’t have to bend to the wishes of Kovalev.
Of course, Kovalev holds three of the four major belts in the light heavyweight division, and he’s seen by a lot of fans to be the top overall champion. Stevenson is managed by Al Haymon, and that obviously makes things difficult. It’s unclear whether Haymon really wants Stevenson to face Kovalev or not. You have to realize that Haymon has a good thing going with Stevenson defending his WBC title against weak contenders like Tommy Karpency, Tavorius Cloud, Tony Bellew, Sakio Bika and Dmitry Sukhotsky.
At this rate, Stevenson can probably continue to milk his WBC title for another four to five years before he finally loses his title to one of those weaker fighters. At 38, Stevenson is going to continue to age and will start to lose his skills at some point unless he ages as well as Bernard Hopkins.
You can understand why HBO wouldn’t want to share the Kovalev-Stevenson fight with another network. It’s not going to be a tremendous fight with huge numbers like the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight in 2015. To be sure, the Kovalev vs. Stevenson fight will bring in good numbers in the U.S, but if the two networks have to share the fight, then it not even be worth it because of the split audience. Showtime would pick up a lot of new subscribers for a Kovalev-Stevenson fight if it were televised jointly by the two networks, and it’s just not a good deal for HBO, who has a larger subscriber base.
I honestly don’t think the Kovalev-Stevenson fight will ever happen. Stevenson has a good thing going fighting in Showtime against overmatched opposition, and there’s no real pressure on him to start fighting good opponents. When you’ve got guys like Tommy Karpency and Bika to pad you’re record with in easy paydays, then why risk it all by fighting Kovalev?
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