Noel Mikaelian was robbed in Chicago’s WBSS quarterfinals.
The evening’s main event went according to script, at least. Polish former cruiserweight titleholder Krzysztof Glowacki (31-1,19 KOs) was arguably the one snub from the World Boxing Super Series’s epic season one cruiserweight tournament. That won’t be the case in season two. Drawing the majority of the crowd thanks to the strong Polish population in Chicago, Glowacki comfortably overcame a hard charging effort from Maksim Vlasov (42-3, 25 KOs) to win a clear unanimous decision in the final season two quarterfinal fight in any division.
The main event was a good scrap in which the Polish top contender badly hurt Vlasov in the first round and then dropped him in the third. Maksim never stopped trying and did nip a round here and there, but he never strung together any kind of sustained surge to have an argument in the end. S8C scored the fight 117-110 and the official judges came back 118-110, 117-110, and 115-112. Most media scores were even wider than mine, however, so that 115-112 is a bit of an eyebrow raiser. The right man won in the end though. With the win Glowacki also picked up an interim WBO belt, a title very likely to be elevated to full championship status given the expectation that unified cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk will move to heavyweight.
Glowacki will be meeting Mairis Briedis (25-1, 18 KOs) in the semifinals thanks to the Latvian’s win in the quarterfinals over Noel Mikaelian (23-2, 10 KOs). He probably shouldn’t be though. In some ways, Briedis was the surprise star of season one. While he was unable to stop the seemingly inevitable coronation of pound for pound elite Oleksandr Usyk, he nearly pulled it off in the semifinals in an outstanding fight. Briedis narrowly lost a majority decision that could have gone either way, giving the Ukrainian by far the most competitive fight of his career so far. He also did himself a great favor in fighting an offensive oriented battle against Usyk where previously Mairis had been viewed as a clinch happy, all around boring watch.
So much for that. I expressed some worry that Briedis-Mikaelian would be ugly stylistically in the co-main event and it certainly was. The men spent as much time grappling and fouling as they did boxing in there. I do not recommend going back and watching this one if you didn’t catch it live. Few will make it through the twelve rounds of tediousness that the two men put on with one another.
The one surprise of it all, however, was that Noel Mikaelian (formerly known as Noel Gevor), clearly got the better work done over the course of the fight despite his clear underdog status. When clean shots were landed, they were from the Armenian. Mostly it was his jab the got going while Briedis could do little but clinch in return. Both men lost a point along the way though as there was more fouling than anything else. Mikaelian did seem to stun Briedis late in the seventh, however, and Mairis was left bleeding after a not so surprising accidental headbutt heading into the last third of the fight. He didn’t respond well to the blood and seemed to seal his loss in that way down the stretch. The judges disagreed with reality, however, scoring the fight 116-110, 115-111, and 114-112 for Mairis Briedis. Even Briedis himself seemed more confused by the scoring than happy with the win. S8C scored the bout 116-110 for Mikaelian.
I don’t throw the robbery word around much, but this one probably qualifies. It never helps when the result of a poor decision is a fight that the promoters wanted to happen either. Briedis-Glowacki is clearly the more marketable fight than Glowacki-Mikaelian would have been, a fact adding fuel to those looking for an explanation of how such a nonsensical decision could have been rendered.
