Earlier this week on twitter and numerous other sites a picture of Sergey Kovalev gathered real steam when it showed him pointing to the t-shirt of a small child in his arms (presumably his son) that featured an image of a chimpanzee wearing boxing gloves.
Beneath the image, Kovalev (27-0,24ko) included a caption, referring to rival and Haitian national (WBC 175lb king) Adonis Stevenson (26-1,21ko) that simply read;
“Adonis is looking great”
The picture quickly provoked a storm on social media with twitter users referring to the dominant Russian champion as “ignorant”, “racist” and “naïve”.
It is sure to be a blow to the image of Kathy Duva’s Main Event Promotions, who are descended from legendary Italian-American fight figure Lou Duva. Kathy was married to Lou’s son Dan, who sadly died of cancer in 1996. She is a passionate supporter of her fighter, Kovalev, and has been vocal in her support of him in the past.
In extremely simple terms, Duva and Kovalev withdrew last week from purse bids for the WBC ordered fight between him and Stevenson due to contracts with rival television networks HBO and Showtime, who represent both Kovalev and Stevenson respectively.
Since that time it seems the dominant Kovalev, who destroyed Welshman Nathan Cleverly in 2013 to win his belt, has been on something of a collision with WBC champ Stevenson, who won his 175lb strap against “Bad” Chad Dawson the same year.
Both have recently traded barbs, and in the opinion of this writer if this fight happens, there is only one winner. And it isn’t Adonis. However these naïve and taunting barbs are ill thought out at best. And deliberately racist at worst.
Make up your own mind.
Twitter @undilutedpoison