With Oleksandr Usyk, Mairis Briedis, and Yunier Dorticos through to the semifinals, the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight bracket needs one more fighter through to fill out its second round. IBF cruiserweight titleholder Murat Gassiev will defend his title and meet longtime Polish contender Krzysztof Wlodarczyk for the right to fill that spot tomorrow night in Newark.
Murat Gassiev (24-0, 17 KOs) first burst onto the American scene with a 2015 knockout over unbeaten Isiah Thomas on a PBC card. Unfortunately, the finish came a hair after the bell and the fight was ruled a no contest. Gassiev redeemed himself next time out in the main event of a PBC on FS1 card by scoring a knockout of the year candidate in the very first round over then unbeaten Jordan Shimmel.
This strong performance earned the California based Russian a title shot back home against unified cruiserweight titlist and fellow Russian Denis Lebedev. Thanks to sanctioning body stupidity, Lebedev’s IBF title was the only one on the line though. The WBA did not sanction the bout. In a terrific back and forth fight, Gassiev rode a fifth round body shot knockdown to win a close fight and pick up his title.
36 year old Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (53-3-1, 27 KOs) has been on the world scene since his controversial title win over Steve Cunningham just shy of a decade ago. While he lost that belt back to the American in the rematch, a multiple fight series with Giacobbe Fragomeni earned it back in 2010. The Polish star went on to defend that belt six times before being dominated by the since injury shelved Grigory Dzozd in 2014. Along the way Wlodarczyk picked up quality wins over the likes of Danny Green and Rakhim Chakhkiev, but he looked pretty old against Drozd.
Wlodardzyk is 4-0 since then, but the only fight he took near world level was this past May against unbeaten but untested Noel Gevor in an all Polish showdown. Though he got the narrow split decision, Wlodardzyk did not look good. Neither fighter did in that pretty dreadful contest.
It is hard to imagine the Krzysztof Wlodarczyk we have seen over the past few years dealing well with a powerful young force like Murat Gassiev. Wlodarczyk has mounted comebacks before, but this would be something else. He will have to keep his volume up to have much of a chance here and that is something he just hasn’t been doing. I expect Gassiev to send him out on his shield.
The winner here goes on to meet Yunier Dorticos in the second round. Oleksandr Usyk and Mairis Briedis are set to meet in the other semifinal. ITV has the rights for this in the UK while the obscure DirecTV/AT&T channel Audience has it in the US. 9:30 PM Eastern is your time.
