by David P. Greisman

Two weeks ago, heavyweight champion Tyson Fury went from ringside into the ring to confront titleholder Deontay Wilder following Wilder’s win over Artur Szpilka. This past Saturday, light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson did the same after titleholder Sergey Kovalev beat Jean Pascal in Stevenson’s home arena in Montreal.

Kovalev had just told HBO commentator Max Kellerman that he wanted to fight “Adonis Chickenson” and then made what sounded like quacking noises, in essence bringing another bird into the equation, saying that Stevenson was ducking Kovalev.

Suddenly Stevenson was seen in the camera frame.

“Hey. That’s me. I’m the champ. I’m the real champ,” he said while being restrained by members of his camp.

That amused Kovalev’s promoter, Kathy Duva of Main Events. Stevenson’s and Kovalev’s teams have been unable to reach an agreement after about two years of on-again off-again negotiations. Each side has blamed the other for the failure to make a deal.

“We had a wish list and the guy at the top of it did his classic ‘hold me back’ today,” Duva told BoxingScene.com. “By the way, did you notice it’s the only time he’ll ever get in the same ring with Sergey and he’s got five bodyguards around him? He was opening his mouth and all I could hear was ‘quack quack quack.’ It’s a shame because it’s the fight that should be happening. I cannot come up with a plausible reason why it isn’t because it’s clearly what’s best for Adonis’s career, but they have passed and the date is not going to be held for them forever.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com