Adonis Stevenson wants Kovalev in June, HBO-Showtime co-promotion

Adonis Stevenson spoke with Showtime's Brian Custer during tonight's DeGale-Bute broadcast, and floated the idea of a June fight against fellow light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev, with HBO and Showtime co-promoting the bout. The two fighters did meet face-to-face in the crowd earlier this evening, but the idea to have the two rival networks team up likely isn't going to go anywhere, so we'll have to see if this is anything more than further empty talk about this matchup.

Stevenson (27-1, 22 KO) holds the WBC belt but was recently stripped of his RING Magazine championship, while Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KO) holds the WBA, WBO, and IBF titles, and is widely considered the best fighter in the division. Kovalev's promoters at Main Events are already shooting down any idea that doesn't end with the fight being shown by HBO:

.@StephenEspinoza @JoshWoogs Easy to say when you're the network who doesn't have either fighter under contract. Not happening. Get over it.

— Main Events (@Main_Events) November 29, 2015

Showtime and HBO are also still rival networks, and the two sides have only worked together on two fights ever: Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao. In other words, the two richest fights of all time at those times. Kovalev-Stevenson is a big fight and a great fight, but not exactly on that level, and the two sides had plenty of trouble coming together for much bigger events.

So in short, while maybe it could happen, it's highly, highly, very, extremely unlikely that Adonis' dream comes true. And while he stated that Kovalev is scared, few are buying that.