By Steve Kim
Despite the rather awkward press conference that was staged this past Tuesday in Los Angeles - Main Events CEO Kathy Duva is certain that on November 19th there will be a fight between unified light heavyweight champion, Sergey Kovalev and Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward.
"We absolutely do and I'm quite sure it's going to be at the T-Mobile Arena with MGM Grand being the sponsor. We are working on the details of the contract," she said while an in-studio guest of 'the 3 Knockdown Rule' with Mario Lopez on Thursday afternoon.
As for any chance that this fight take place in the hometown of Ward's at the Oracle in Oakland, Duva noted - "There's an event at the Oracle as it turns out that night."
Duva also confirmed that the fight agreement prevents this fight from taking place anywhere in California or Russia.
There is talk that Roc Nation Sports prefers New York.
"There are practical problems with that,"explained Duva. "It was considered in the beginning and David (Itskowitch) and I with the blessing - I believed - of his management decided back in June that the better deal was in Vegas. There's more money."
Itskowitch was the former COO of the Roc Nation Sports boxing division. He resigned suddenly from his post last month.
"Madison Square Garden is going to have their first ever UFC show one week earlier. There are expenses in New York that are not going to be present in Vegas and the biggest of all is the money, the money, the money - there is so much more money in Las Vegas,"continued Duva.
She then added - "And the press, the press can't come to New York, a lot of reporters can't afford to come to New York and so for pay-per-view it's not even a close call and our deal is based on where we go, where it's financially best and the answer is T-Mobile."
Richard Sturm the president and chief operating officer of MGM Resorts Entertainment and Sports, has been instrumental in trying to iron out an agreement.
"Richard really stepped up yesterday (Wednesday) and tried to come up with creative solutions to get it done and I think as a result of that he will,"said Duva.
Steve Kim is the news editor for krikya360.com.