With the announcement of dates and venues for both Oleksandr Usyk versus Marco Huck and George Groves against Jamie Cox, we now officially know the details on half of the eight first round fights. Usyk, despite being the number one seed, will be on the road in Huck’s adoptive home of Germany on September 9th. The all English clash between Groves and Cox will predictably take place in their home country on October 14th.
2012 Olympic gold medalist and WBO titlist Oleksandr Usyk (12-0, 10 KOs) is the favorite in the loaded cruiserweight field. As the top seed in the tournament, he had his pick of the four unseeded fighters and he chose to fight former titlist Marco Huck (40-4-1, 27 KOs). Huck is somewhat of a modern legend in the division having tied the record for number of title defenses, but he has lost his last two times out against top competition. Usyk should be able to use Huck to help build his name.
WBA titleholder George Groves (26-3, 19 KOs) finally won his world title on his fourth try just this May against Fedor Chudinov in a fun action fight. Like Usyk, Groves was the number one seed in his division and had his pick of the unseeded fighters. He chose Jamie Cox, an undefeated prospect with an unfortunate history of legal issues. Groves will be heavily favored in this fight.
Previously announced, Callum Smith (22-0, 17 KOs) and Erik Skoglund (26-0, 12 KOs) will meet September 16th in England while Mairis Briedis (22-0, 18 KOs) will take on Mike Perez (22-2-1, 14 KOs), on September 30th in Latvia.
Here are the two brackets:
Cruiserweights
Super Middleweights
