Did you enjoy that war of words this weekend after Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (24-0-1, 22 KOs) knocked out Cedric Agnew in the seventh round? After the fight when asked about his arch rival Adonis Stevenson (23-1, 20 KO’s), Kovalev said, “I don’t want to talk about Adonis Stevenson. He is a piece of sh*t.”
Stevenson was quick to retort via Instagram by saying, ” Kovalev, you can’t fight for sh*t! Tell mama Duva to call Al Haymon and Yvon Michel so I can have an Easy pay day.
I can neither confirm nor deny whether those comments were followed by a rousing round of, “I’m rubber, you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you” or “It takes one to know one” or “‘I know you are, but what am I?”
A little childish?
To say the least!
In regard to Stevenson’s statement about having Kathy Duva (aka Mama) contact Haymon or Michel, Adonis knows full well that thanks to HBO refusing to buy into Haymon’s demand for more money for “Superman” that he is now the property of Showtime and all the hope of the supreme Light Heavyweight showdown has been effectively flushed down the toilet.
Instead what we are going to get is force fed a so called title unifying 175 pound battle between Stevenson and Bernard Hopkins, (unless Hopkins should somehow lose to Beibut Shumenov on April 19).
No disrespect to Hall of Famer Hopkins, but seriously, no one cares about him taking on Adonis. Well no one except Bernard who is obviously very sure he can out guile him over 12 abysmal rounds. And of course Adonis is all in for this one as he knows the payday will be the biggest of his career. Meanwhile, he can safely sidestep Kovalev without really looking like he is ducking him.
But the jury has already come back on this one and the majority of the boxing community believes Superman will stay far far away from Krusher Kovalev’s Kryptonite.
In the meantime what do we have left for Kovalev?
If you are from Quebec and see your hopes of Kovalev returning to your Province fading, maybe not.
Did you hear Roy Jones on the HBO post fight report suggesting Sergey fight one of the other best in that division?
Did you hear Jones suggest that maybe that is Jean Pascal?
Do you remember that Jones is now a training advisor for Pascal?
Do you see me working?
And if not Pascal, then what?
Allow me to harken back to a quote I got from a very high placed industry source when I asked him to speculate what would happen if Adonis left HBO and aligned with Showtime. The source answered my question with a very telling question of his own, “The question then becomes whether Kovalev follows Stevenson or Andre Ward steps up and in?
Look for the latter becoming a very real and doable possibility.
First of all Andre Ward has cleaned up the 168 pound division, there is no mountain for him to climb there; he is already at the top. I can’t think of a better way for Ward to secure his place as the Pound4Pound best today than to step up to 175 and clean house there.
Second, Ward is entrenched at HBO with his part time commentary gig so we shouldn’t have to worry about him changing networks anytime soon.
Next, although Ward may have some issues with his own promoter Dan Goossen, there is no “Cold War” between Duva, Goossen or HBO that I am aware of so this fight should not have any man made road blocks.
I see the Ward/Kovalev fight as a real possibility.
The Pascal fight may have a nice ring to it as far as Roy Jones sees it but Pascal is promoted by the same man who promotes Stevenson (Michel) and that relationship may put undue strain on Kovalev/Pascal negotiations.
Truthfully, I am sorry I just had to break all that down. The fans deserve Kovalev vs. Stevenson.
But thanks to money, greed, and a distinct and clear apprehension to step in the ring with the Russian, Stevenson will now call Showtime his home.
Adonis may end up lining his pockets with more money than he ever thought possible but all that money will never buy back the respect he will lose with boxing fans if he doesn’t man up and step in the ring with Krusher Kovalev.
Written by William Trillo – www.pound4pound.com
