Where Goeth the World Boxing Super Series?

The first edition of the World Boxing Super Series was a mixed bag. Season Two appears to be hanging on by a thread.

The inaugural World Boxing Super Series (henceforth WBSS) consisted of two eight-man single elimination tournaments featuring boxers in the super middleweight and cruiserweight divisions. The nuts-and-bolts of the tournament were laid out at a hastily arranged press conference in New York in March of 2017. The kick-off event was a glitzy gala in Monaco on July 8 of that year. All 16 participants were present.

Historically, pro boxing tournaments never play out as planned; something always goes wrong. The WBSS 168-pound tournament, to no great surprise, was messy. Nor was the cruiserweight tourney free of hiccups.

German veteran Juergen Braehmer looked good in dispatching Rob Brant in his quarterfinal match in the 168-pound competition. That boosted him into a fight with top seed Callum Smith, but Braehmer was a late scratch, reportedly suffering from a severe case of the flu. That opened the door to an obscure Dutch fighter named Neiky Holzen when both of the alternates – Germany’s Vincent Feigenbutz and Denmark’s Patrick Nielsen — were unavailable.

Holzen lasted the distance with Smith but was widely outpointed in a humdrum fight.

The other semifinal matched George Groves against Chris Eubank Jr. In a mild upset, Groves outclassed Eubank. But during the fight he dislocated his shoulder. That pushed back his fight with Callum Smith. It didn’t come off until Sept. 28, by which time it was something of an afterthought. The tournament, as initially scoped out, was supposed to have concluded in May.

The cruiserweight tournament was an artistic success. The organizers succeeded in boating all four of the significant title-holders. The finale between #1 seed Oleksandr Usyk and #2 seed Murat Gassiev was arguably the most eagerly anticipated cruiserweight fight since Evander Holyfield fought Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1986. The fight didn’t live up to its billing — Gassiev, a fierce puncher, had difficulty laying a glove on the slick Usyk — but produced the first unified cruiserweight champion in the four-belt era.

It was an artistic success, yes, but was it an economic success? The organizers had difficulty locking in venues (the match between Yunier Dorticos, a Miami-based Cuban, and Russia’s Dmitry Kudryashov was planted in San Antonio, of all places), with the consequence that the cruiserweight tournament also ran late, concluding on July 21.

More damaging from a bottom line standpoint, the organizers were unable to secure a U.S. TV partner. The cruiserweight finale between Usyk and Gassiev eventually aired in the U.S. on KloudTV, a fledgling live-streaming subscription service based in Alexandria, Virginia.

The money behind the WBSS comes from Comosa AG, a subsidiary of a larger entertainment company based in Switzerland. Kalle Sauerland and Richard Schaefer hold key executive positions. Sauerland oversees the boxing division of German powerhouse Sauerland Event, the firm founded by his father Wilfried Sauerland, a 2010 inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Schaefer, a Swiss national with a background in investment banking, founded Ringstar Sports in 2016 and was formerly the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions.

The WBSS backers purportedly ponied up enough money to ensure that the WBSS would have at least a three-year run. They added a third tournament for the 2018/19 season, seemingly a statement that everything was hunky-dory. The new 140-pound tourney is especially strong. It’s a weight class brimming with good young talent with Regis Prograis and Scotland’s Josh Taylor leading the pack. But cracks have appeared in the WBSS armor and there’s concern that the entire shebang may implode.

In the 140-pound tourney, Prograis, Taylor, Ivan Baranchyk, and Kiryl Relikh advanced. The matchups for the semis are Prograis vs. Relikh and Taylor vs. Baranchyk. But Prograis and Baranchyk are threatening to pull out.

Both are frustrated with the slow pace of the tournament but there is more involved. Prograis advanced to the semis and a date with Kiryl Relikh when he outpointed Liverpool’s Terry Flanagan at New Orleans on Oct. 27. That fight, held in Prograis’s hometown, reportedly drew only 2,000 paid, roughly half as many as turned out at the same venue to see his previous fight against a lesser opponent, Argentina’s Juan Jose Velasco. Top Rank was the lead promoter for his bout with Velasco. Prograis feels that the WBSS did a poor job of promoting his match with Flanagan.

The WBSS is reportedly trying to make the Prograis-Relikh fight for New Orleans on May 18, but that’s still three months away. Winning the Muhammad Ali Trophy that goes to the victor of a WBSS tournament would be a nice feather in his cap, but Prograis is anxious to get on with his career. There are other lucrative matches out there for him, especially if he is willing to move up to 147.

David McWater, the manager of Ivan Baranchyk, says his fighter will drop out unless the WBSS gets its finances in order. In a tournament match, both fighters are paid the same with the winner receiving a bonus. McWater says that Baranchyk had to wait two months to receive the bonus that was owed him. But that hasn’t stopped the WBSS from ballyhooing the Baranchyk-Taylor fight on their web site. They say it will come off in Glasgow on May 18 with the bantamweight semi-final between Naoya Inoue and Emmanuel Rodriguez serving as the co-feature.

Prograis and Baranchyk aren’t the only boxers with a gripe against the WBSS. Nonito Donaire is penciled in against Zolani Tete in a semi-final match in the bantamweight tournament, but the date and venue are as yet undecided. The cruiserweight semifinal between Yunier Dorticos and Andrew Tabiti is likewise in limbo.

Will season two of the World Boxing Super Series make it to the finish line? Your guess is as good as mine.

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