I recently had a chance to speak with Main Events promoter, Kathy Duva. Main Events was founded in 1978 and has played a big role in the sport of boxing, having promoted legendary fights such as Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Tommy Hearns and Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson.
In this interview, I got Duva’s thoughts on her companies top fighter, light heavyweight champion, Sergey Kovalev. Kathy Duva discusses Kovalev’s winning effort against Bernard Hopkins and also looks forward to the upcoming Kovalev vs. Pascal match up. Kathy also spoke about a possible fight between Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev later this year and also a potential mega fight between boxings biggest stars, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Here is what Kathy Duva had to say.
Robert Brown: I want to get your views on Sergey Kovalev’s fight with Bernard Hopkins. What were your impressions of the lead up and the fight?
Kathy Duva: When we got to the press conference, what I saw were two alpha dogs sniffing each other, and they both knew it. Bernard is accustomed to getting to that position and see it in the other guys eyes and know that he owns him. He knew he had met his match at that point, I could see it, I was standing right next to them.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see this going all the way back to the beginning of my career when we promoted Leonard vs. Hearns in the early 80’s — that’s the first time I ever watched two great fighters stand face to face like that and realize all that went on just at the press conference. At that point they both knew that the other guy wasn’t gonna back down.
I think Sergey had this hanging over his head that he’d never gone more than eight rounds because he never had to, he was knocking everybody out and he kind of knew he was gonna have to get there eventually and do it. Every fighter has to get past that mental barrier of getting that twelve rounds under their belt and knowing that they’re still gonna be fresh and knowing what it’s gonna feel like.
I think Sergey decided that night, “I’m gonna do this tonight, I’m not gonna go crazy trying to knock this guy out because I don’t have to and I’m gonna outbox him because I can.” He was tired of hearing that all he could do was knock people out, so he showed us all a new level of his game that very few people knew was there and it was a joy to watch, it was wonderful.
Robert Brown: Now Kovalev is going to take on Jean Pascal, what are your thoughts on that fight coming up?
Kathy Duva: Sergey is starting to follow in the tradition of great champions and that is, he’s going to the other guys’ hometown because there’s a good financial opportunities there that doesn’t exist here. He’s becoming a bigger star in America — remember, he’s not American, he’s Russian. So when he fights in America, we’re just building a home for him here. As his popularity grows, so will his audience.
Jean Pascal is a national hero in Quebec and whenever he fights, on a slow night he gets ten to fifteen thousand people out to watch his fights, on this one it will be over twenty thousand. We simply were not able to make the economics work here in the US the way they do in Canada, so we went to Canada to get the money.
If you look back at the history of the sport, that used to be normal — especially before everything was on television. Champions would go into the other guys’ hometown because that’s where the money was. Sergey’s feeling was, “I don’t care where I fight him, I’ll knock him out or dominate him no matter where we are.”
Sergey Kovalev’s not gonna dictate terms to the point where it’s gonna hurt him economically and I admire him for that and I appreciate the fact that he is willing to do that. In doing so, I think he’s gonna become a big star in Quebec in particular, where there’s a huge market for boxing. We’re building his brand internationally and that’s how it’s done, that’s how it used to be done and we’re gonna continue in that tradition with him.
Robert Brown: Are you expecting Sergey Kovalev to knock Pascal out or because of Pascal’s known durability, do you think this might be a fight that goes twelve rounds?
Kathy Duva: What I love about Sergey is that I don’t think I’ve seen him fight two people the same way. Every time he gets in the ring, we see something else that he does. With Pascal, Sergey is gonna size him up and decide what to do and then he’s gonna do it.
I’ve seen everything from at the end of the first round with Sillah, after sizing him up, he literally walked across the ring and left him there. With Bernard Hopkins, he sized him up and even after knocking him down in the first round he said, “Okay, I’m not gonna get cocky here, this is a legend I’m standing in front of.”
He will size up Jean Pascal, then he will decide what to do with him and it will be interesting for all of us to find out what that’s gonna be. It’s not like he’s a predictable fighter where you get to see the same thing all the time and I think that’s part of what makes him so interesting.
Robert Brown: Assuming Kovalev beats Pascal, are you hoping that a fight with Adonis Stevenson will happen?
Kathy Duva: Sergey wants to win all four titles and Stevenson happens to hold one right now so therefore of course Sergey would like to win that title. If Stevenson still holds the WBC belt by the end of June, then that’s gonna be the fight we target next.
The WBC, we asked them a couple of weeks ago, we went to the convention and we asked them to order a fight between Stevenson and the winner of Pascal vs. Kovalev. They agreed to do so, to make the winner of Pascal and Kovalev the mandatory for the WBC championship.
If Adonis Stevenson still holds that title, then sometime between September and November it’s likely that Stevenson or whoever holds that WBC title will either have to fight Kovalev or they will have to vacate. That will create another opportunity to win that title, so we’ll see what happens.
As Adonis Stevenson has proven time and time again, you can’t make him fight. I’m under no illusion that we’re gonna somehow make him get in the ring, but if he wants to get in the ring with Sergey Kovalev, the of course we want to make that fight.
Robert Brown: Do you think Adonis Stevenson has been ducking Sergey Kovalev up until this point?
Kathy Duva: Yeah, all we hear is “quack, quack, quack” but we’ll see what happens. I’d be pleasantly surprised if he changed his mind.
Robert Brown: Kathy, I want to get your promoters view on a hot topic in boxing. Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is once again in talks. Do you think Bob Arum and Al Haymon and their unwillingness to work together is what’s stopping that fight from taking place?
Kathy Duva: If Floyd Mayweather wanted the fight to happen, I think it would happen, I don’t know if he does. It’s easy to hide behind somebody if you don’t want a fight to happen. My personal opinion is that at this point in time, it appears Manny Pacquiao really does want the fight to happen. I think he does, based on the things he’s said and done recently.
As far as Bob Arum is concerned, I gotta say, Bob Arum has been involved in making big fights with people he can’t stand many times, including with my own husband years ago. When they hated each other more than I can describe, and believe me, they hated each other as much if not more intensely than the relationship Arum has with Al Haymon right now.
Arum’s relationship with Don King over the years has been just as acrimonious, yet the big fights always got made then. Something’s changed, I don’t know if it’s Bob but I do know that when you see someone obstructing over and over again, after a while you start to notice a pattern. I see a pattern.
You see fighters giving up their titles rather than take a big fight, you see them moving over to Showtime when a fight with HBO is done already. You see constant avoidance of serious challenge by one person’s fighters. I don’t know how on earth you can’t see this pattern. I think whether it’s the fighter or the so called ‘advisor’ I really don’t know, but clearly they agree with each other or this wouldn’t be happening.
In my years of reading on individual view, comments and analysis regarding Pacquiao-Mayweather Fight, this analysis is the most intelligent by Kathy Duva. I totally agree with her that the events and circumstances over the years will logically give everybody a clear view of the situation. Any individual who desire to acquire anything will do everything to have it. My analysis is that this fight will not happen. Mayweather and his advisers will do everything in the power to make sure that this fight will not happen , EVER!!! If you have a logical mind and if you are not a blinded fan of Mayweather, you would see the truth behind their empty words, tactics and situation. Only a miracle can make this fight happen. We just hope a miracle would happen to make this fight a reality.
Sure I’m biased !
But only a blind man couldn’t see that Pacquiao projects what is good and correct in life , while that SOB Mayfag just projects greed and being rude .
But then that’s the way of the typical black person male or female in todays society .
I hope they fight and I hope Pacquiao kills the bum !!!!!!
What does being black have to do with it? Leave race out of it. I’m filipino and got a lot of great friends who are black.
Mentality.
@PACTARDUSA having a addiction porn and strip clubs represents everything good in life to you? You have to be the dumbest person who has ever commented on this blog. Then you want to bring up race? You should just go back to your trailer and never be heard from again. Hoe you get on the internet anyway? I’m sure your trailer park doesn’t have WiFi but your probably stealing someone else’s WiFi you F’n loser. Floyd is going beat the crap out of your little tax evading steroid freak and you all know it.
All black niggaz die! Die! Die!
PACMANUSA, I am as big a Pacquiao fan as you will find. I love Manny Pacquiao, and I agree with you that he does, indeed, project all that is good and correct in life. But, remember, looks can be deceiving. He did get caught up in running around with women, and gambling not too long ago, not that I give a rat’s ass if someone does either of those things. What I do love about Manny is that he is a true gentleman in and out of the ring. What I love to see in a boxer, or any athlete, for that matter, is greatness wedded to humility, and Manny Pacquiao is the embodiment of both of those qualities.
Floyd Mayweather is a great fighter. He has a mad skillset, not greater than Manny’s, but certainly of the same caliber, however, he is, to be sure, the antithesis of humility. He is brash and arrogant to the point of nausea. I can not stomach watching him during interviews where he constantly talks about himself in the third person, like he is some kind of living legend. He may have many people fooled into thinking he has a very high opion of himself, but deep down, Floyd is a scared, insecure, little boy who lacks substance. Everything he values is superficial and meaningless – money, women, cars, jewelry, etc.. What he values most, his undefeated record, is as vapid and meaningless as the things I just mentioned, and he has devalued his undefeated record, even further, by ducking opponents who pose a treat to that undefeated record. Each time he ducks a serious opponent, and replaces that threat with a hand picked opponent, he reduces the meaning of his uninterrupted winning streak.
You will notice, PACMANUSA, that I made no mention of the race or sexuality in my assessments of either of these fighters. Why did I not do that? Well, because race and sexuality has nothing, at all, to do with the qualities that I value in a fighter, or with their skills, or with their value as a fighter, or as an individual. Timothy Bradley, Sugar Shane Mosely, and Evander Hollyfield, to name just a few examples, are Black men who are and were stellar examples of greatness and humility, and I love them for those qualities no less than I would if they were white men. I wouldn’t consider them any less examples of those qualities if they were Gay men, either, because neither state of being would impact who they were as fighters, or as individuals. You made mention of race and sexuality as a means of undercutting the integrity of Floyd Mayweather. First, Floyd’s words and actions do a good enough job of undercutting his integrity as a fighter and as a man. He belittles his opponents, and he ducks fighters to the shameless extent of vacating a belt in order to avoid a serious threat to his undefeated record. If Floyd were white and did those same things, he would be just as big a piece of shit.
The point I am making, PACMANUSA, is that your effort to use race and sexuality to attempt to belittle Floyd Mayweather failed miserably, just as it would have by any bigot. In doing so, you undercut your own argument and you undercut your credibility as an objective individual who is worthy of being taken seriously. You shifted the focus from Floyd’s undesirable characteristics to your own undesirable characteristics, and in so doing exposed yourself as someone not worthy of any consideration at all. You showed me, as well as many other’s who read your comment, that you, yourself, are neither great, nor humble, in any kind of way.
You articulated a lot of good points and put forth a good read. Too bad it’s wasted on a troll.
amen to that.
Im filipino and i hope you are not filipino with what you just said.
Your mothers a steroid user you fucking Homo
Media is really abused. “like boxing experts” – who are either Floyd fans, or who can’t accept a Filipino is boxing’s GOAT. eyebrows raised? 8 Weight Division Titles, 10 if Pacman did not skip mid 120’s division. nobody comes close yet these boxing experts still argue.
Floyd Mayweather scared period…
I have seen good Filipinos and I have seen bad ones too. Just like other races, they have the best and the worst. I have seen, met and befriended some blacks who are good to me and I consider them as good friends. One rotten apple does not represent the whole bunch.
Great observation by Duva.Why Floyd moved to Showtime? because he does not like the way Larry Merchant post interview with him? Why did he hurt his wife and because of that went to Jail? because he disliked her? or these are “pre meditated” to avoid Pacquiao fight? FMJ is the greatest defensive fighter ever-outside the ring.
THERE ARE SO MANY GREAT BLACK PEOPLE BUT SORRY TBE??? YOUR NOT ONE OF THEME!!!
It is difficult for Floyd’s fan to see thru his masked language. But his actions give his true intentions and character away. A true champion does not deceive people just to avoid the most important fight of his life just because he may lose. That’ pure and simple cowardice. The group of Haymon and Floyd has gone from HBO, CBS and now moving on to NBC. Greed has no loyalty, dignity and credibility. Unfortunately, NBC will soon realize that. With the landscape changing in recent months, we hope that the tarnished reputation of boxing can be resuscitated. In particular, by the institutions who are supposedly tasked to man and regulate the sport from shenanigans.
We all know ever since who wanted the fight and who’s ducking it. That’s the gist of what Ms. Duva observation and articulation.
Very good points from Kathy Diva.
DUVA is a piece of SHIT!