Kovalev Says He’s Most Motivated To Fight In Famous Arenas

Sergey Kovalev, Eleider Alvarez, Main Events CEO Kathy Duva, Dmitry Bivol and  the Manager of Dmitry Bivol (Vadim Kornilov) and Isaac Chilemba all participated in a conference call ahead of the “Super Men” card on August 4. You can see highlights below:

Question:

“I know you answered earlier about how easy it was to make this fight. Is there now hope that you guys can work together more often and bring us these types of fights, ’cause there was a blockage there for many years. We were not able to get a lot of these fights done because of the way Al Haymon was managing his business. Did you have to get his okay, his approval, in order to get this fight done and do you feel like it’ll be easier from now on?”

Yvon Michel:

“Look, I have a good relationship, I believe, with Kathy. Things are changing very quick in boxing. We are going in a direction where I fit the most to our fighters on short term, but every champion is hoping to become unified champion. There are two champions in the in Main Events stable, there are two champions in ours. Hopefully we will find a ground sometime, somewhere to be able to have this super fight against one another.”

Kathy Duva:

“I certainly feel the same way.”

Question:

“Eleider, you are fighting a guy who has pretty much destroyed everyone he has faced in his career except for Andre Ward. Is there any fear facing a puncher like Kovalev?”

Eleider Alvarez:

“If I was scared then I wouldn’t be boxing. That’s the reason why I picked this sport. Despite the fact that I haven’t faced any world champs in the fight in the past, I have faced guys who were power punchers so it’s not an issue for me.”

Question:

“Sergey, have you fought in Atlantic City before and are you looking forward to fighting there after all the other great names like Lennox Lewis, Ray Mercer and Arturo Gatti? And do how you feel about adding your name to that list appearing there?”

Sergey Kovalev:

“I’m very happy to be in this league of famous boxers in the boxing history. I’m very happy, back to Atlantic City, because I don’t care where to fight, but I am most happy where is famous arenas like Atlantic City, Madison Square Garden. It’s very big motivation to prove that you’re the best and I’m going to show August 4th that I deserve it.”

Question:

“Kathy, how do you feel about bringing the sport back to Atlantic City?”

Kathy Duva:

“The last big, major fight in Atlantic City involved Sergey Kovalev when he fought Bernard Hopkins and so it’s been a while. That was the last time I believe Main Events was there, so we’re really happy to be back. I think I did address it a little bit earlier, but particularly happy to be working with our friends at Hard Rock, Bernie Dillon, Sharon Pearce, and all the other people that we’ve known there for so many years. It’s really nice and comfortable to be back with friends.

“It’s a great show. This is what’s boxing is supposed to be. It’s fun to be a promoter when you get to put on fights like this where the number one fighter in the world is fighting the man in the light heavyweight division. Then you have the best young light heavyweight in the world, another world champion, who’s fighting a real test in Isaac Chilemba. It’s all really … It’s a pleasure and so I look forward to seeing everybody there.”