By Rick Reeno

If fans were hoping to see a light heavyweight explosion between unbeaten contender Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9KOs) and WBO/WBA/IBF champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25KOs) - they may have to wait a little longer because it won't happen on November 28th.

A few weeks ago, Kovalev's promoter Kathy Duva of Main Events

informed BoxingScene that her fighter will return on the previously

mentioned November date in Moscow, Russia.

Duva presented an offer to Michel for a fight between Kovalev and Beterbiev. A Kovalev-Beterbiev showdown would be a huge event in Russia. The two fighters do not like each other, with Beterbiev - a deadly puncher in his own right - holding claim to two amateur victories over Kovalev.

Michel sat down with Beterbiev and his team. With only 9 fights and the boxer coming off Ramadan, Beterbiev's team felt it was better to have at least one more fight before a Kovalev deal is wrapped up.

"I thank [Duva] for the offer that she made. It was interesting. After meeting with Artur, his trainer and his team - and after we received a letter from the IBF requesting a final eliminator against Bernard Hopkins - everybody felt that after only having nine fights, that directly going to Kovalev was good but having at least one more fight was even better. We don't want to postpone a fight with Kovalev forever, Artur wants to fight Kovalev," Michel told krikya360.com.

"He just fought in June and then had Ramadan. Everybody felt it better to have one more fight. We haven't said that we don't want to fight on HBO. We haven't said that it wasn't an honest effort [by Duva]. We can keep talking and do the fight right after. I told her, wrote to her what I just told you - our intention is to fight Kovalev and we just want to have one more fight. There is nothing wrong with that. The trainer is asking us for one more fight to give him the best shot possible to beat Kovalev."

Michel makes it clear that he's is not maneuvering to get Kovalev locked into a purse bid, because a purse bid will only benefit the champion with the IBF's rule of a 75-25 split.

"If Beterbiev becomes the mandatory and we don't reach an agreement, it would go to a purse bid. But at the purse bid they would have the advantage of 75-25. It would be the advantage of all of us to negotiate an agreement. We are all on the same page. We won't fight Kovalev in the next one, but we can keep talking and have Artur fight him, if he wins his next fight," Michel said.

Regarding Hopkins, Michel has not heard from Golden Boy Promotions and the IBF has not received a confirmation of acceptance. Hopkins has until Thursday to accept the IBF's invitation to participate in the eliminator.

Michel says the money is there to make Beterbiev-Hopkins a huge event in Canada.

"If there is a chance that it could be that, Beterbiev fighting Hopkins and trying to do what nobody has ever done - to knock him out - that's also a very appealing opportunity. But if it's another fight, it's another fight. The IBF has not heard from Golden Boy or Hopkins yet, but they have until tomorrow. If Hopkins agreed to fight Beterbiev, it would be easy to finance. It would be big [in Canada]," Michel said.