KATHY DUVA: “I WOULD LOVE TO MAKE CARL FROCH VS SERGEY KOVALEV!”

Kathy Duva, promoter and CEO of Main Events has the likes of Light Heavyweight World Champion, Sergey Kovalev and undefeated heavyweight Vyacheslav Glazkov. I was lucky enough to grab some time with Kathy, where we talked about why they pulled out of the purse bid for Adonis Stevenson, possible mega fight with Andre Ward and looking for fights in the UK.

Adam Noble-Forcey: Earlier this year the WBC ordered a purse bid for Adonis Stevenson to fight Sergey Kovalev and you pulled out. After talking about wanting the fight so much, why did you walk away?

Kathy Duva: Well, to make a complicated situation as simple as possible. In December, we approached the WBC and asked them if they would consider making Sergey Kovalev the mandatory challenger after the Nadjib Mohammedi fight and they said they would, so we expected that. Then we were notified in March that they (WBC) were going to call for a purse bid right away! At the behest of Yvon Michel, who is of course the promoter of Adonis Stevenson!

The problem with that was, we still hadn’t finished the deal for the Nadjib Mohammedi fight and Sergey Kovalev still had a contract with HBO that had one fight left on it. Yvon Michel was quite aware of what the contract says because he was offered a mirror deal with Adonis Stevenson a little over a year before when he walked from HBO and decided to sign with Showtime.

They were fully aware of what the terms of our deal were (with HBO). By ordering that early purse bid, what they did was trigger HBO’s matching rights on the Adonis Stevenson fight and at that point it would not put us in a position to bid. It would have given HBO the right to match the bid; at that point if I lost the bid, I couldn’t have given them the right to match.

So I explained to the WBC that we were not going to be able to go into a purse bid with a potential fight with Adonis Stevenson that wouldn’t be happening until 2016. Because we didn’t have the deal done with Mohammedi, when this all became public it caused HBO to put their foot down and basically said “are we going to exercise the first and last clause in the contract for the Mohammedi fight? Yes or No? Well we are not going to do it unless you stay with us” and we found ourselves making a new deal with HBO earlier, a lot earlier than I had expected.

When push came to shove, we had to make decision. Are we going to blow away our deal with HBO in the hope that maybe we can make a fight with Adonis Stevenson or are we going to stick with the company that has built every single star in boxing over the last 30 years? In the end it was an easy decision.

Adam Noble-Forcey: There have been suggestions from you that a fight between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev could be a possible mega fight for 2016?

Kathy Duva: Yes, that is the mega fight. You have Andre Ward, who if he moves up to 175 pounds, he will immediately be put near the top of the 175 pound rankings, he is already in the top pound for pound rankings in the world. Sergey Kovalev is in the top ten pound for pound rankings, most people’s top five. If you have two fighters in the top five pound for pound fighting each other, that’s a big fight, it’s a big deal.

I expect that fight is probably going to happen. I’ve already had conversations with his promoter and they told me that one of their options was to have a fight with Sergey Kovalev next year. I’m happy to see Andre Ward’s next fight is at 172 pounds, let’s hope he makes his way up to 175.

Adam Noble-Forcey: Who do you think Sergey Kovalev will fight between now and then?

Kathy Duva: Sergey has told me he wants to fight four times a year, he just wants to keep fighting. So we are looking at doing a fight in Europe in the fall. It might be in Russia as he wants to be fighting at least twice a year in Russia or Europe. Again, I look down the road and I see potential for big fights in England with….Hey! I would love to make a fight with Carl Froch. I don’t know if that may be possible, I understand he may be retiring, but does a fighter like Carl Froch take a look at this and think, “I got a chance at winning three light heavyweight titles, is that worth it for me to take the chance?”

You might have James DeGale moving up eventually. You know when you’ve conquered one weight division do you go into the next division when it’s so close. We are talking about seven pounds; we are not talking about the massive jump up between Cruiserweight and Light Heavyweight for example. Once Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev are in the 175 pound division, which is where the center of gravity will be, so to speak.