by Radio Rahim

Los Angeles, California - Michael Yormark, the President of Roc Nation, believes his company is currently flying solo in the promotional build-up for the upcoming rematch between Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) and Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26 KOs).

Last November, Ward won a close twelve round decision over Kovalev to capture the IBF, WBO, WBA light heavyweight titles at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The HBO Pay-Per-View rematch takes place on June 17th at the Mandalay Bay.

Main Events, who promote Kovalev, were the lead promoter the first time around. This time around, Roc Nation and Ward have the lead role in the promotion.

Before the interview started, Yormark mentioned that Roc Nation's logo was excluded from some of the promotional items that were visible during the recent open workout for Kovalev.

"I want to make sure that you're in front of the right backdrop, because I noticed that during Kovalev's media day that it didn't have our logo on it and it really wasn't a co-promotion. It was more of Main Events and Sergey, so I really want to make sure that we're in front of the right backdrop and the right fight," Yorkmark told BoxingScene.com.

Prior to the first fight, there was a lot of tension between the two promotional entities.

Have things gotten any smoother between the two?

"To be totally transparent, we really haven't see much of Main Events. Obviously [Main Events CEO] Kathy [Duva] has talked a lot about her 39 years of experience in the boxing space, which is a lot more than we have. For whatever reason, she has decided to take a step back and really not contributed to the overall success of the promotion," Yormark said.

"But that's Ok, Roc Nation is the lead promoter. We've worked very close with Andre, who's done a tremendous job of promoting this fight. He's done everything that we've asked him to do. We've done everything we can to make sure that June 17th will be a spectacular event - not just in Las Vegas, but for the people who purchased the pay-per-view."

"Hopefully Main Events will make some contributions as we get closer to the fight in the next two weeks. Our goal and number one focus is to make sure that we put on a great event, and I think that its going to be a great event."

Duva also spoke to BoxingScene in a recent interview, and explained that her company does not agree with the promotional tactics of Roc Nation.

“We have a rematch of the most controversial fight of last year,” Duva told BoxingScene.com. “We have two guys who are rated No. 1 and No. 2 by The Ring magazine fighting each other. This is only the second time that has ever happened. The first time was [Pernell] Whitaker and [Julio Cesar] Chavez. That was 24 years ago [September 1993]. This is a historic fight. Why they think they need to come up with this ‘As the World Turns’ stuff to try to sell the fight is beyond me.

“This is the Roc [Nation Sports] way. This is how they think you’re supposed to sell a fight. They must, because this is what they’re doing. I have been in that position, where you have a fight and nothing was working. You saw Bob Arum in that position last week, when he was in Chicago [for 2016 Olympian Michael Conlan’s second pro bout]. ‘What the hell else is there? Let me go out and say something crazy.’ I get it. But this isn’t that fight. The story here is that we had a very close fight between two great fighters, that had a very controversial ending, which by the way, is the way Whitaker and Chavez ended as well. That happens when two of the best fighters in the world get in the ring together. The problem is their fighter doesn’t want to acknowledge that happened.”