By Jake Donovan

As long as Sergey Kovalev remains limited to fighting exclusively on HBO, the greatest challenge that lies ahead isn’t necessarily his opponent on fight night but in fact securing a steady stream of respectable opposition.

Public response indicates that standard hasn’t quite been met in his upcoming mandatory title defense versus Nadjib Mohammedi. The July 25 light heavyweight title fight airs live on HBO from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Staging such a fight in the desert during the dead of summer was always going to be a recipe for disaster. Ticket sales began excruciatingly slow and never escalated. Thousands of fans will be disguised as empty seats on fight night, either due to a lack of interest, or perhaps in holding out hope of scoring free tickets for a competing show in town that same evening—Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions event on NBC Sports Network, which takes place at Palms Casino.

It’s become common knowledge that the PBC team has utilized seat-filling series such as 1iota on nights where ticket sales are lagging, or even in advance just to create the perception of a packed venue. It is here where Kovalev’s handlers theorizes that it’s tough to compete with free.

"There has been a tendency in boxing lately to give all the tickets away. I’m not going to kid anyone and say we are sold out; tickets are in no way sold out,” promoter Kathy Duva admitted during a recent media conference call to discuss the HBO show. “It will take a lot of time before the damage to this market can be undone. We are hoping for a big walk up.”

It will have to come to that, as nothing else—including a “Buy One, Get One Free” sale offered during Father’s Day weekend—has proven successful.

There exists history between Main Events and Haymon, the latest stemming from increasing difficulty to put together a long-desired light heavyweight clash between Kovalev and World light heavyweight king Adonis Stevenson. While Stevenson holds lineal tiles to the world championship, Kovalev—who currently has three major belts in tow—is widely recognized as the best light heavyweight in the world.

Getting the two to settle their differences the ring, however, has proven to be an uphill battle. They were on a collision course in 2014, before Stevenson fled from HBO, signing with Haymon and taking his services to Showtime/CBS, where he has spent his last three fights with another lined up for September.

Kovalev recently renewed his contract with HBO, on which he will appear for his seventh straight fight when he faces Mohammedi. The fight could have been a shot at Stevenson, as Main Events arranged the rare feat of a multi-belted titlist to land as mandatory contender for another title.

That came about after Kovalev stopped Jean Pascal—Stevenson’s mandatory at the time—in eight rounds this past March. An agreement was in place for Kovalev and Stevenson to take one fight apiece—Stevenson faced and defeated Sakio Bika in April, while Kovalev moved forward with the mandatory defense versus Mohammedi—before heading into negotiations or an eventual purse bid.

Kovalev and Main Events were burned, however, when a purse bid hearing was called much earlier than expected. Stevenson’s promoter, Yvon Michel reached out to the World Boxing Council (WBC) to ask for an expedited hearing—which, unfortunately, is well within the rules and can be exercised when determined that the two sides have no intention of negotiation in good faith.

Spooked by the possibility of losing out on the fight to Haymon—whose PB series is financially backed by Waddell & Reed—HBO and Main Events decided it was in Kovalev’s best interest to withdraw its services from the purse bid and move forward with the best fights that can be made as per the terms of his exclusive network contract.

Barely a month prior to fight night, it was decided by PBC that its next Vegas event should take place on July 25. On the opposing show, Beibut Shumenov will face BJ Flores—who turned pro under Main Events’ banner and even served as an announcer for its NBC Sports Network Fight Night series before the deal ended in 2014 to make way for Haymon’s PBC series.

On its own, Shumenov-Flores hardly rates in terms of boxing relevance. But because Kovalev-Mohammedi was already a tough sell to begin with, any opposing event—especially one with the potential for free tickets-poses a threat.

Still, the show will go on as planned at Mandalay Bay.

“I have no thoughts at all on the show down the street,” Duva insists. “Giving tickets away on the same night that people are charging for a fight down this street is another example of anti-competitive behavior. Our prices are reasonable, tickets start at $25. Sergey is well worth the price of admission and you get what you pay for."

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox