This is not what it appears to be and people should wait. Duva was not going to outbid Haymon so this move looks strategic and none of us are flies on the wall. I'll take a wait and see approach. Its simply out of character for the fighter and its most likely a management call. They had to know it was going to be in Quebec and we all should know that he does have an IBF mandatory. Lets be honest here that the Stevenson camp also knows about his mandatory challenges looming. What else we do know is that Stevenson has never called him out and in fact acted as if he could not even mention the Russians name over more then a year. We have also not heard a peep from the Ibf as to whether they are willing to allow him to skip a mandatory. The object of the game here is to see 1 undisputed champion and we are as close to that as ever. In fact its never happened since we have had 4 belts. Spinks was the first triple crown winner prior to the Wbo. Roy equaled the task but a man named Dariusz also had a claim.

Something else is at play here and its certainly not Kovalev running scared. The report is pretty vague. They pulled out of a purse bid for a fight that might happen in 2016. So what?