Kicking off this September, The World Boxing Super Series aims to bring boxing back to mainstream public attention with a star studded elimination tournament that sees the best fighting the best in each division. The tournament will comprise eight fighters in two divisions battling it out to be number one and take home the inaugural Muhammad Ali trophy.
Fighters will be seeded and the top four fighters in each division will choose their unseeded opponents in descending order as shown below.
The “Draft Gala” to both choose and announce these quarter-final matchups will take place tonight in Monaco.
Below is a quick rundown of each division and the fighters participating in each with seeding.
Cruiserweight
Oleksandr Usyk [1#] – (12-0, 10 KOs) WBO world champion
Murat Gassiev [2#] – (24-0, 17 KOs) IBF world champion
Mairis Briedis [3#] – (22-0, 18 KOs) WBC world champion
Yunier Dorticos [4#] –(21-0, 20 KOs) WBA world champion
Krzysztof Wlodarczyk [U] – (53-3-1, 37 KOs) former WBC/IBF world champion
Marco Huck [U] – (40-4-1, 27 KOs) former WBO world champion
Dmitry Kudryashov [U] – (21-1, 21 KOs)
Mike Perez [U] – (22-2-1, 14 KOs)
Super-Middleweight
George Groves [#1] – (26-3, 19 KOs) WBA world champion
Callum Smith [#2] – (22-0, 17 KOs)
Chris Eubank Jr/Arthur Abraham [#3] – (24-1, 19 KOs/46-5, 30KOs) *Winner gets the number 3 spot
Juergen Braehmer [#4] – (48-3, 35 KOs) former WBA/WBO world champion
Jamie Cox [U] – (23-0, 13 KOs)
Avni Yildirim [U] – (16-0, 10 KOs)
Erik Skoglund [U] – (26-0, 12 KOs)
Rob Brant [U] – (22-0, 15 KOs)
Each of these lineups is stacked with champions and undefeated fighters and should be a thrilling tournament for both fighters and fans alike. Dependent on the success of these two events, Comosa AG, the organisers of the series, hope to include more divisions in the near future to try and establish lineal world champions in each division. This would be a huge step in simplifying the alphabet title system that has put so many casual observers off boxing and go a long way to creating one lineal champion of the world as was seen in the past. Hopefully, this series is the first step in that process.
Individual matchups in the tournament will be previewed in detail here on Sportsrants so be sure to stay tuned for more information.
