KATHY DUVA, the promoter of Sergey Kovalev who goes into a rematch with Andre Ward on Saturday, has criticised the announcement of Floyd Mayweather’s clash with UFC star Conor McGregor for drawing attention away from the Ward-Kovalev fight week.
“It’s all Mayweather and the circus and it’s a shame,” 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.
“They can land some blows on HBO but in the end they’re still going to be there. None of us should think that we’re somehow we’re going to permanently inflict damage on a corporation the size of Time Warner and not have them get even in the end,” said Duva. “They play their games. They’re playing a game they can’t win in the long run. They can make a whole lot of money. They’re going to have a hugely successful event, all that’s true and they’re going to in some tiny little way inflict some damage on the Time Warner corporation but it’s going to be very temporary.
“HBO was here when we started and it’s going to be here for a long, long time.”
Duva suggested the Mayweather-McGregor event will be damaging for boxing. “The worst part about it, the casual fans, the ones that we always want to bring into the tent, they’re going to be devastated, they’re going to be disappointed and it’s going to be another three years before they’ll want to see a boxing event and that’s too bad. But it’s not a boxing event,” she said. “It’s a huge spectacle, I get it.”
