By Cliff Rold
Fight fans love tournaments.
This being boxing, sometimes they turn out the way they were designed. Sometimes they don’t. Often, the latter is an issue of size and design. The HBO heavyweight unification tournament in the 1980s crowned Mike Tyson, which is arguably exactly what everyone hoped for.
It took a year after the tournament ended to get to its unofficial but very real finale, Tyson versus Michael Spinks. Spinks opted out of the field early and let his market value rise. It was brilliant stuff at the pay window and for the most part all of it is still remembered fondly.
The Super Six tournament at super middleweight was a bit more of a roller coaster. In the end, Andre Ward stood tall, and Carl Froch built himself into a star, but each succeeding round of the tournament had new faces. Allan Green entered the field in round two; Glen Johnson in round three. Only half of the “Super Six” made all their scheduled dates.
Two tournaments that made it off without a hitch, the HBO middleweight unification in 2001 and the Showtime bantamweight tournament in 2010 and 2011, were made up of four men and cut right to the chase. Those were hard to mess up.
Through the first two quarterfinal rounds, the cruiserweight version of the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) is unfolding as designed. The higher seeds have won and won inside the distance. We saw what might be the end of a long run near the top for a staple of the class (Marco Huck) and a knockout of the year contender (Yunier Dorticos’ second round shelling of Dmitry Kudryashov).
Halfway through the opening frame, the only thing to complain about here from Stateside is no television network picked this up. It’s 2017 though and that’s really not a huge issue. After several technical hiccups in the first fight of the tournament (Oleksandr Usyk-Huck), Dorticos-Kudraysahov was an easy watch via internet stream last weekend.
The WBSS website allowed fans to tune in and not miss a second, even able to watch while an HBO lightweight main event between Jorge Linares and Luke Campbell played out at roughly the same time. Dorticos made sure fans didn’t have to divide their attention long and walked away with serious buzz.
While there hasn’t been a classic yet, there has been enough to generate conversation. The WBA sub-titlist Dorticos (22-0, 21 KO) earned a lot of hardcore fan credit in 2016 with a warring win over Youri Kalenga. The speed and sudden pop he showed last weekend was an instant gif all over social media.
Assuming a US network steps into the fray for the semi-finals, it will mean Dorticos versus either current IBF titlist Murat Gassiev (24-0, 17 KO) or former IBF and WBC titlist Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (53-3, 37 KO). Dorticos-Gassiev, on paper, would be mouth watering. One can be forgiven for hoping it shakes out that way. While there is no US TV, this side of the bracket brought Dorticos-Kudryashov to San Antonio while Gassiev-Wlodarczyk will go down in Newark.
Whether the semi-finals can come here for at least one fight remains to be seen.
Gassiev-Wlodarczyk isn’t until October 21, with several weeks of catching up to come for the super middleweight WBSS field. This weekend, we have WBC champion Mairis Briedis (22-0, 18 KO) at home in Latvia against former heavyweight contender Mike Perez (22-2-1, 14 KO). Once again, US fans will have to watch online, but they’ll be able to watch and that’s a good thing. The winner from this weekend’s affair gets the WBO beltholder Usyk (13-0, 11 KO) in the semi-finals.
With some intriguing semi-final matches possible, the results in the ring aren’t the only things that matter. With fingers crossed, can all of the winner’s escape without a major injury? Will we get through three rounds of training camps without a cut delay or cancellation?
This is the risk of a tournament in boxing. This isn’t basketball. While team sports can lose a player and still be at least a facsimile of their same, here a substitute alters the field itself. The hope at the end is for an undisputed king of the cruiserweights. Any of the title holders falling out along the way would be an obstacle to that.
The cruiserweight field has attracted more attention from serious boxing fans than the super middleweights because of its depth and the feeling that the top four 200 lb. fighters in the world will settle the question of superiority in short order. So far, everything has gone well.
We’re only through two of the seven fights it will take to secure a finish. Don’t just wish for good fights. Wish everyone good luck.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
