AFTER Chris Eubank Jr’s collision with George Groves at the Manchester arena on Saturday and Callum Smith’s February 24 semi-final with Juergen Braehmer, the super-middleweight final of the World Boxing Super Series is targeted to take place on June 2 at the O2 arena in London (there is some limited room manoeuvre on the date depending on George Groves’ recovery from injury).
“It’s something special. To see the trophy being lifted for the first time after four years of working on the project and the year now on the road with it,” promoter Kalle Sauerland said.
A new season of the World Boxing Super Series will take place. The draw in fact is expected to be held the following week. Two weight classes will definitely feature and a potentially a third. Likely divisions could be bantamweight, lightweight and light-heavyweight.
“We’re looking first of all at two, but a third one’s on the agenda. Definitely two but potentially a third,” Sauerland told Boxing News. “We’ll announce a lighter weight first; bantam, feather, lightweight, super-fly, we’re looking at those weights.”
“They’re all talking about going to light-heavy as well,” he added. “The light-heavies and, hey, [maybe] cruisers, again.”
Sauerland continued, “I think the first season was about me being confident of getting names in. I think if you look at the reaction, most of those guys want to go in. People who don’t go in the tournament, they’re going to be a bit found out now aren’t they? I’ll name and shame. I’m terrible like that. [Anthony] Dirrell, [David] Benavidez are the biggest ones. [James] DeGale, to be fair we were going to talk to DeGale and then he got injured. We were going to talk to him about the tournament, he would have been a great addition but then he got injured. So c’est la vie.”
He added, “The guys who are confident of winning they also know that’s their fight calendar.
The World Boxing Super Series is looking at involving big names in the next edition, like Raymundo Beltran, Jorge Linares and even Vasyl Lomachenko. “Lightweight from a UK perspective, you’ve got [Luke] Campbell, [Anthony] Crolla, [Ricky] Burns. You look across obviously in America, Linares, Beltran, Loma,” Sauerland said. “There are some interesting names. For me, if he wouldn’t go in, we’d still make a great tournament.”
At bantamweight they’d also look at UK boxers, like Ryan Burnett, Jamie McDonnell and Paul Butler.
“If people don’t want to go in, they don’t want to go in. You can’t force them. They’d earn more money in the tournament than anywhere else. They’d have a better platform than anywhere else, get more prestige,” Sauerland concluded.
