Stevenson-Kovalev: Now what?
Recent history started with Duva announcing earlier in the week that Main Events and Kovalev would NOT participate in an April 17 purse bid put together by the WBC, the sanctioning body whose belt Stevenson currently wears and Kovalev has said he wants.
Duva said Kovalev would forfeit his position as the No. 1 ranked challenger to AdonisÔǪbut she didn’t close the door on a bout, even though all are proceeding with a Kovalev-Nadjib Mohammedi clash in July, with “Mo” being the top-rated challenger by the IBF.
Duva said she is willing to have Kovalev fight Adonis but only on HBO or on HBO-Pay-View, with a 50/50 split for the two fighters.
Michel responded to Main Events, with the following letter
Montreal April 15, 2015
Miss Duva:
This letter is to confirm that we received the correspondence yesterday regarding your offer for a unification title fight between Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev. Thank you very much.
You must have done your deal with HBO just recently because you were quoted right after the [Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean] Pascal fight on March 14, 2015, that it was Kovalev’s last fight of your current contract with the network. This is one of the reasons we requested the WBC to hold a rapid purse bid since we believed you could freely participate on what has the potential to be the richest light heavyweight fight in boxing history. You certainly knew that agreeing to a new contract with HBO without having their full support to win the bid was jeopardizing the fight from happening.
You complained to the WBC that we have not communicated with you in terms of engaging negotiations prior to requesting a purse bid. You are correct. Considering our past experiences together, as well as our different network affiliation, we did not believe a negotiated agreement was possible and subsequently requested that the WBC skip this unnecessary phase.
At the last WBC convention, you petitioned to have your fighter become the mandatory contender to Stevenson, requesting a 50/50 split on a purse bid but you failed to specify that, at all costs, the fight had to be on HBO.
In your proposal, you mentioned: “We choose the venue based upon who offers the best deal. Our guiding principle will be maximization of revenues.”
We are totally in agreement with you but don’t understand why this principle cannot be applied on the US television partner as well. We both agreed [we] would not hold the fight in Atlantic City with no guarantees, if we can have a $2 million offer in Quebec City. The same should apply for television.
Anyway, if you do not believe the potential economic success of this event or you are concern[ed] of not receiving the necessary backing, just sit back and let us take the risk and do the job. Your fighter will make as much money in this single fight then all his other career fights combined.
Best regards
Yvon Michel
President General Manager
The next day, Main Events faxed this to Michel:
Dear Yvon,
I am so happy to hear that you are willing to negotiate. Sergey Kovalev really does want this fight to happen. And I agree that, after Mayweather-Pacquiao, Kovalev-Stevenson is the most important and anticipated bout that could occur.
I am pleased to learn that Adonis is more popular than I had realized. And I wholeheartedly agree that both fighters should maximize their earning potential for this historic event. Just as the year ‘s biggest fight will take place on PPV, the platform that delivers more revenue to fighters than premium cable or broadcast television rights fees, so should Kovalev-Stevenson.
As you are aware, Sergey’s deal with HBO mirrored the one that was offered to Stevenson, last year. Therefore, you are also aware that at the end of that deal, HBO possessed a matching right that was triggered when you arranged for a purse bid to be called prior to the consummation of Sergey’s IBF mandatory. Had you waited for the natural course of events to unfold , we might be having a very different discussion.
This is a small business, Yvon. And during the past two weeks, I have been hearing what I believe to be credible rumors that Adonis might fight Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. this summer. Sergey has had two great fights in a row against two of the world’s best light heavyweights in Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal. So it would be terrific if Adonis would also get a quality win under his belt before meeting Sergey.
It is well-known that Sergey’s next fight will be his IBF mandatory versus Nadjib Mohammedi. Given that you are in a position to know exactly what is being planned for Adonis’ next fight and I am not, it would have been quite unfair of you to try to lock Sergey into a purse for Kovalev-Stevenson on the very day before Chavez Jr. is scheduled to fight. Obviously, you would have been in a position to unilaterally affect the value of the Kovalev-Stevenson fight after the fact.
So I am sure you can understand why we must require a deal based upon a 50/50 split of all revenue in order to consummate this deal.
After taking all of this into consideration , we decided to remain loyal to HBO, the network that has built every major star in boxing during the past 35 years, including Adonis Stevenson. Sergey is an HBO fighter; Adonis is a free agent. Therefore, if Adonis – or anyone else for that matter, wants to fight Sergey Kovalev, they will have to do it on HBO or through HBO’s excellent PPV distribution network.
So I propose that the best solution is for both of us to sit down with HBO, hear them out and try to make a deal that is in both fighters’ best interests. You will find that HBO is most willing to make a variety of impressive commitments in order to assure that this event will be an unqualified success.
Rather than continue to negotiate through the media, I suggest that we sit down at your earliest convenience, hammer out a deal, and make this event happen for Sergey, for Adonis and for the fans.
Best,
I put the onus to decide who gets the “W” here on you all, the masses. In this day and age, with social media platforms making it easy to communicate your wisdom far and wide, arguably, the people have more of a say in such matters than ever before. It’s harder to remain ensconced in a bubble because more information is out there to be digested than ever before. Friends, what are your thoughts? Help Duva and Michel; offer your suggestions on how we can find that proverbial common ground and get this promotion off the ground.
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