As Kovalev prepares to defend his WBO, WBA and IBF light heavyweight titles against mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohammedi this week, Duva is hard at work securing a big name opponent for the ‘Krusher’ later in the year.
‘Krusher’ blasted recent opponent Jean Pascal in recent comments to the media, although there would be considerably more interest from fans in a fight with Ward.
“I think Sergey made it a lot more interesting with his comments about Pascal. From a business perspective, it is a great fight. We are keeping Pascal close. He is fighting in the co-feature but first Pascal has to defeat Gonzalez.
“We have (also) been talking to Andrew Ward’s people. We all agree the fight is going to happen; it is just a matter of when. Sergey’s schedule for his next few fights is planned. That fight should happen by the end of next year. Sergey wants to fight the best. The best fighting the best is what people want to see. We want to complete that deal in the foreseeable future.
“There are plenty of opponents. There are always new fighters coming along. The landscape of boxing changed six months ago and I am willing to bet that in another six months it will change again. I think between the fighters in the light heavyweight division and guys at 168 that are going to moving up there will be no shortage of opponents for Sergey.
“When you have that kind of star power in the division, they are going to draw together like magnets. Sergey has a contract with HBO and his career is mapped out for the next three years,” she added.
Kovalev v Ward would ease the pain of those who pine for the Russian to share a ring with WBC title holder Adonis Stevenson in a unification clash and may well see current super middleweight champion Ward go into a fight as an underdog for the first time in many years.
