The two upcoming World Boxing Super Series tournaments have one additional fighter each, both par for the course so far. The super middleweights get Juergen Braehmer, a good but not elite fighter, while the cruiserweights continue to pad their loaded field with probably the biggest puncher in the division.
Juergen Braehmer (48-3, 35 KOs) held one of those fake WBA “world titles” from the tail end of 2013 to last October when he lost it to Nathan Cleverly. His biggest win in that span was probably in 2015 over Enzo Maccarinelli, but the most notable aspect of the imaginary reign as it relates to this tournament is that it was at light heavyweight. Braehmer, now 38, hasn’t cut to super middleweight since 2007. Whether he can actually pull this off or not as of now is one of the bigger stories in the small, but growing super middleweight field.
The super middleweight tournament so far includes WBA titleholder George Groves (26-3, 19 KOs) as well as undefeated contenders Jamie Cox (22-0, 12 KOs) and Erik Skoglund (26-0, 12 KOs). Skoglund will also be cutting from light heavyweight. Four slots remain to be filled.
Russian slugger Dmitry Kudryashov (21-1, 21 KOs) comes close to rounding out the cruiserweight bracket as its seventh official entrance. Kudryashov may be a long shot to win, but as one of the biggest punchers in the entirety of the sport, he is certainly a fun one. Most recently, just last month, the power puncher avenged his one defeat against talented Nigerian Olanrewaju Durodola rather violently as he is prone to do.
The other six confirmed cruiserweights are as follows: WBO titlist Okelsandr Usyk (12-0, 10 KOs), IBF titlist Murat Gassiev (24-0, 17 KOs), WBC titlist Mairis Briedis (22-0, 18 KOs), former long reigning titlists Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (53-3-1, 37 KOs) and Marco Huck (40-4-1, 27 KOs), as well as young top Cuban contender Yunier Dorticos (21-0, 20 KOs).
The schedule for the tournament will be as follows: Seedings will be announced on July 8th meaning all fighters will be announced by then. The committee will seed the top four fighters who will then choose their opponents from the other four. The first round will be fought in September, the semi-finals in “early 2018,” and the finals in May of 2018. That is a fast paced schedule that will ask fighters to be willing and able to fight up to three top opponents in nine months. No word on television partners as of yet.
