KATHY DUVA, the promoter of Sergey Kovalev who goes into a rematch with Andre Ward on Saturday, has criticised the announcement of Floyd Mayweatherโs clash with UFC star Conor McGregor for drawing attention away from the Ward-Kovalev fight week.
โItโs all Mayweather and the circus and itโs a shame,โ Duva said.
Mayweather-McGregor will be broadcast on Showtime. It was announced a few days before Ward-Kovalev on HBO, it will take place on August 26, the same day HBO screen Miguel Cotto-Yoshihiro Kamegai and a few weeks ahead of Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez on September 16, which will also be on HBO.
โThey can land some blows on HBO but in the end theyโre still going to be there.ย None of us should think that weโre somehow weโre going to permanently inflict damage on a corporation the size of Time Warner and not have them get even in the end,โ said Duva. โThey play their games. Theyโre playing a game they canโt win in the long run. They can make a whole lot of money. Theyโre going to have a hugely successful event, all thatโs true and theyโre going to in some tiny little way inflict some damage on the Time Warner corporation but itโs going to be very temporary.
โHBO was here when we started and itโs going to be here for a long, long time.โ
Duva suggested the Mayweather-McGregor event will be damaging for boxing. โThe worst part about it, the casual fans, the ones that we always want to bring into the tent, theyโre going to be devastated, theyโre going to be disappointed and itโs going to be another three years before theyโll want to see a boxing event and thatโs too bad. But itโs not a boxing event,โ she said. โItโs a huge spectacle, I get it.โ