Theater Lobby, Madison Square Garden
It was thought that Kovalev was going to defend against Marcus Browne, but some legal situations have come up with Browne and the call was made to Alvarez.
“We had been going back and forth for four weeks with the contract and they were asking for changes and it wasn’t easy,” Kovalev promoter Kathy Duva said. “Then in the middle of it we read in the Daily News that he had these two domestic incidents. At that point I’d be committing malpractice if I didn’t find an alternative. You just don’t know if something is going to happen again. He could be sent to prison, there could be another incident. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I do know that when a fight goes down the promoter pays for everything.”
She said she spoke to HBO Sports executive vice president Peter Nelson and “we both agreed it was a good idea to look for Plan B.”
“When I called (Alvarez promoter)Yvon (Michel) last week, he was having problems with the Stevenson-Jack fight because of his situation with Alvarez,” Duva said. “I said, ‘You have a problem, I have a problem’, and he jumped at my offer for Alvarez. We stayed in touch and on Monday he said he was ready to go. We got a contract out to him on Tuesday at 5 p.m., we made one minor change he asked for and when I came into the office at 11 a.m. on Wednesday the contract was signed.
“Yvon is a good promoter and he’s professional so it was an easy fight to make because we were in a position where we needed the other. Alvarez gets his world title fight and Sergey gets to face a good opponent, which is what he really wants. The Browne situation is volatile so we had to do this. My job is to make sure my fighter has a fight. I saw giant red flags waving in my face with the Browne situation. Why put myself through that? It’s an uninsurable risk. So now you have the two guys who can’t get a fight with Stevenson, because he won’t fight them, fighting each other. It’s a good story and a good fight. If people really want to make a fight it gets done pretty easily.”
“We are extremely disappointed that the Kovalev fight was cancelled,” Keith Connolly, Browne’s manager, told ESPN. “I was under the impression that we had the deal with Main Events. That is the only reason Marcus pulled out of the IBF purse bid with Beterbiev. Marcus would have been ready, willing and able to fight this summer.”
