World Boxing Super Series – TnS Boxing Podcast #47 – Early this year a series of press releases announced the World Boxing Super Series and on July 8th, the group announced the line-ups for two single elimination, eight man tournaments to kick off in September and October.
The idea of tournament brackets in boxing is an on again, off again theme that we last saw roughly five years ago when Showtime launched a 168 pound super middleweight tournament called “The Super Six” that also benefited from a line-up featuring the best fighters in the weight class. The tournament was eventually won by Andre Ward and the big win in the Super Six propelled him to the top of the rankings, but the double elimination, points driven format was confusing to follow. The tournament also suffered from attrition and it extended itself, taking more than two years to finish.
Well, the World Boxing Super Series is looking to avoid that. With an eight man bracket, the tournaments will be down to four men by the end of October if the scheduling gurus have their way. The semi-finals are expected in early 2017 with the finals occurring by the middle of 2018. The top seeds get to select their first round opponents.
World Boxing Super Series – TnS Boxing Podcast #47
Of the two tournaments, the Cruiserweight tournament is considered the most attractive as the field there is the most diverse internationally.
At cruiserweight, The Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk comes in as the #1 seed. Usyk has just 11 professional fights but he has a long amateur career that translated well to the pro ranks. He has shown a highly evolved, technical game that has impressed boxing observers. In selecting veteran former champion Marco Huck as his first round opponent, Usyk is sending a message because Huck is the biggest name in the tournament. Usyk is not only looking for wins, he is hunting for glory as well. Every one of the fighters in the tournament has held a world title except Mike PErex, but Perex is a heavyweight coming down to the cruiserweight class and as such, could be a dark horse.
The super middleweight bracket is loaded with talent as well, but four of the eight fighters are from the United Kingdom, and with names like Rob Brant of the United States and Avni Yilidrim of Turkey in the mix, there are at least two fighters that have noticeably less experience. George Groves, the #1 seed, could potentially win the entire thing while competing strictly against British fighters, and three of the top four seeds are from the U.K. Don’t get me wrong, the British are deep in this weight class and a final of Chris Eubank Jr or George Groves taking on Callum Smith is a quality match-up but the tournament lacks the diversity of the cruiserweight offering.
Below are the current line-ups for the pair of World Boxing Super Series tournaments that are in the books.
Cruiserweight Super Series Opening Round:
#1 Oleksandr Usyk (Ukraine) vs Marco Huck (Germany)
#3 Mairis Breidis (Latvia) vs Mike Perez (USA)
#2 Murat Gassiev (Russia) vs Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (Poland)
#4 Yunier Dorticos (Cuba) vs Dimitry Kudryashov (Russia)
Super Middleweight Super Series Opening Round:
#1 George Groves (UK) vs Jamie Cox (UK)
#3 Chris Eubank Jr (UK) vs Avni Yilidrim (Turkey)
#2 Callum Smith (UK) vs Erik Skoglund (Sweden)
$4 Jurgen Brehmer (Germany) vs Rob Brant (USA)
World Boxing Super Series – TnS Boxing Podcast #47 / Check out more boxing news and features at The Sweet Science, where the best boxing writers write.
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