Louis, who spoke to WBN over the phone this week, says both camps need to thrash out a fifty-fifty deal for the encounter to place, which he believes can emulate that of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Mayweather and Pacquiao, like Stevenson and Kovalev, fought on separate TV stations in Showtime and HBO, although Louis says the former network are fully on board with going over the finer points of a deal with their broadcasting rivals.
“The offer remains on the table, but it’s up to him if he wants to take it. You have to understand though, that before this we had a purse bid to agree terms but they withdrew from the purse bid.” Louis exclusively told World Boxing News.
“Now they came and tried to offer us something that we don’t think is fair enough. We offered them something that we think is fair for both of them, but they won’t accept it.
“If they wanted to make the fight, why did they withdraw from the purse bid in the first place? – Then after that, they came out with an offer they know we are not going to accept.
Louis continued: “They both have to agree terms. He’s a champion and Adonis is a champion so it has to be fifty-fifty. Kovalev brings his network HBO and we bring our network Showtime. We make the fight happen and everybody is happy. But he doesn’t want to do it. Showtime are willing to do it, but HBO don’t want it.
“Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson is not an opponent; he is the lineal light-heavyweight champion of the world. Kovalev is a champion too and we respect that, we don’t deny that. So we say bring your network, we bring out network like Pacquiao did with Mayweather and they fought on fair terms. It’s the same thing.”
With Kovalev lining up a massive fight with Andre Ward in November, a June date was stipulated by the Russian’s promoter Kathy Duva for Stevenson to accept their current offer.
Stevenson is in the process of scouting opponents for an April date, as he explained to WBN himself earlier this week, although Louis is confident that the fight can still be made if no agreement is reached in 2016.
“It’s not the last chance, but if we don’t all agree to fair terms then the fights not going to happen,” he said.
“All we want is fair terms and we don’t shut the door to a fight with Kovalev because the fans want to see that. They cannot tell us what to do and we are not going to tell them what to do. Nobody is going to dictate to us.”
“We know this though, if Kovalev fights Adonis he gets knocked out…cold!”
