Today was the Draft Gala from Monaco for the World Boxing Super Series. This means we have the fights for round one set as well as their loose dates. The quarterfinals will be in September and October, the semifinals in January and February, and the finals in May.
The way the process worked is that first the top seed selected his opponent from the unseeded ranks, then the second and third seeds did the same, and finally the fourth seed was paired with the last remaining unseeded fighter by default. The show itself took about 45 minutes was fine for what it was.
The super middleweight tournament looks like this:
(1) George Groves (26-3, 19 KOs) v Jamie Cox (22-0, 12 KOs)
(4) Juergen Braehmer (48-3, 35 KOs) v Rob Brant (22-0, 15 KOs)
(2) Callum Smith (22-0, 17 KOs) v Erik Skoglund (26-0, 12 KOs)
(3) Eubank/Abraham (Records Below) v Avni Yildrim (16-0, 10 KOs)
The Eubank/Abraham slot will be decided by next Saturday’s Chris Eubank Jr (24-1, 19 KOs) and Arthur Abraham (46-5, 30 KOs).
The exceptionally loaded cruiserweight tournament looks like this:
(1) Oleksandr Usyk (12-0, 10 KOs) v Marco Huck (40-4-1, 27 KOs)
(4) Yunier Dorticos (21-0, 20 KOs) v Dmitry Kudryashov (21-1, 21 KOs)
(2) Murat Gassiev (24-0, 17 KOs) v Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (53-3-1, 37 KOs)
(3) Mairis Briedis (22-0, 18 KOs) v Mike Perez (22-2-1, 14 KOs)
Gassiev/Wlodarczyk was not chosen by Gassiev, but was instead mandated by the IBF in order for its title to go forward.
Now that we have actual matchups, the promotional power behind the tournament can move forward with securing locations, specific dates, and television deals for the individual events that will move the bracket along. No word on how the tournaments will deal with no contests or draws.
