This was revealed by Kathy Duva, whose company promotes Kovalev, in a recent statement about the lingering questions on the possibility of a rematch especially if the fight is competitive or ends in a controversy.
Duva confirms there is a rematch clause in place in the fight contract.
“There’s no doubt that we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t protect Sergey’s titles. It’s one of the reasons I worked so hard to get the WBA, WBO and IBF to make this their mandatory so we don’t have a mandatory problem coming out of it, so we can make a rematch,” she explained to Boxingscene.com
“If Sergey were to lose you’d absolutely see a rematch,” Duva added. “If Sergey wins it’s not quite as certain.”
Ward is the former unified WBA, WBC and Ring magazine middleweight champion and coming off a unanimous decision win against Alexander Brand of Colombia last Aug. 6 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
Kovalev, who is putting his WBA (undisputed), IBF and WBO (Super) light heavyweight titles on the line is a tough opponent for Ward. While they are both unbeaten in their careers, Kovalev has a better knockout rate (84 percent) compared to Ward with 50 percent.
The Ward-Kovalev fight is evenly matched but Ward has been the slight favorite to win from the time the fight was announced following their tune-up fights and just about two days before fight night, Ward is still the slight favorite to win.
The winner of the fight could become the Ring Magazine’s No.1 pound for pound fighter in the world.
