By Reynaldo Sanchez: Last Saturday night in Quebec, Canada, the current WBO light heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev and WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson defeated Tony Bellew and Ismayl Sillakh respectively. Kovalev stopped Ismayl Sillakh in the 2nd round, while Stevenson won by TKO in 6 rounds over Tony Bellew.
After Kovalev and Stevenson won their bouts last Saturday night, Max Kellerman now the new HBO “Hard Man, interviewed both fighters and immediately talked about a possible unification fight between Kovalev and Stevenson, possibly in the middle of 2014. Kovalev made it very clear that the fight he wants now is against Stevenson. However, Stevenson evaded the challenge and mentioned as potential rivals to England’s Carl Froch and American veteran Bernard Hopkins as potential opponents for his next fight.
The reaction of the boxing fans was immediate. From different social networks and boxing websites, everyone agreed that natural fight at light heavyweight is the Kovalev-Stevenson. And what the fans are are also now clamoring is the dream fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Even though some argue that the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is no longer a possibility, we must agree that there is still a slight chance that fight can happen before they both retire. And there are millions of fans who will still pay to see it happen if it does take place.
Kovalev and Stevenson teams are aware that a unification fight must be for the correct money. In fact, Stevenson emphasized that when he said “If the money is right, I have no problem fighting Kovalev.” Derek Santos and John David Jackson, Kovalev coaches, said in training camp for the Sillakh fight that they were ready for that fight against Stevenson.
If HBO and both teams sit down to negotiate the monetary terms for this fight soon, possibly for March or May 2014, we could see the Kovalev-Stevenson fight actually happen.
With his win over Sillakh, Kovalev kept his impressive KO line reaching 7 knockout victories in a row in his last 7 fights. While Stevenson added another knockout to his record raising his KO streak to 9 consecutive knockouts since 2010.
For now we only have the boxing fans reaction. They long to see these two gladiators locked in the ring in 2014. Kovalev would be at its best at 31, and Stevenson would be around 37 by the time they step inside the ring. Tony Bellew, Chad Dawson and Tavoris Cloud are the best opponents that Stevenson has fought thus far. While the Russian Kovalev has the following victims on his resume: Ismayl Sillakh, Nathan Cleverly, Cornelius White and Gabriel Campillo. It seems that Adonis had better opposition, and that could give him a plus. But Kovalev has shown to possess the “Kryptonite” on his knuckles to end “Super Man” Stevenson’s short reign.
Many things still need to happen before a Stevenson vs. Kovalev fight can take place. Managers, promoters and HBO are almost pleased to need to agree on the particulars before he it can happen in 2014. Meanwhile, both fighters will be taking a break after fighting four times in 2013. Following their breaks, they’ll be back to the gym in the next weeks to expect that all negotiations can be worked out so that this fight can take place in 2014.
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