Gassiev vs Usyk in jeopardy. Gassiev may fight Tabiti on July 21st in Russia instead.

[1hourRun]

What I don't understand is : isnt the WBSS suppose to replace Usyk with a runner up? one of the boxers in the losers bracket as the replacement? Kinda like how they tried to slide E.U bum jr. in there for Callum Smith?

[kafkod]

What a b*tch this Usyk is : Wlad fought Pedvetkin in Russia during political tension between these countries, Max Schmelling fought Joe Luis while ****'s were in power in 1938 -- a time when ********** were not allowed to vote! The fight represented the struggle between Democracy vs. Fascism.



Oh look here they are in Russia, the snipers must of missed.

Stay ducking 'Iron' Murat Gassiev Usyk!

The Russians weren't occupying Ukrainian territory when Wlad fought in Moscow. And what would Gassiev vs Usyk "represent" .. the struggle between Russia and Ukraine?

Seems like you have just given a very good reason why the fight should happen on neutral ground. A boxing match should never represent anything other than a contest to find out which man is the better fighter on the night.

[Eff Pandas]

I doubt the WBSS would be able to recover from this if it happened.

This is boxing. Don King is still around. The WBSS will be alright, but there is no denying its a bad look if Usyk vs Gassiev doesnt happen over a easily fixanle issue it would seem. I mean bite the bullet and put the fight in another of a few dozen fight destinations even if you lose some money. The look of the final not happening as played out over this dumb ass reason is bad. At least the Groves situation made sense with the rules of the tournament. This is a whole other stoopid side problem.

[kafkod]

What I don't understand is : isnt the WBSS suppose to replace Usyk with a runner up? one of the boxers in the losers bracket as the replacement? Kinda like how they tried to slide E.U bum jr. in there for Callum Smith?

Considering what a close fight Usyk vs Breidis was - a lot of people thought Beidis deserved to win it - I think he's going to be very pissed off if they bring in someone else instead of him. And rightly so, considering the precedent set by putting Eubank on stand-by in case Groves wasn't fit in time.

[SceneBoxer]

This would defeat the main purpose of having this tournament.

[1hourRun]

The Russians weren't occupying Ukrainian territory when Wlad fought in Moscow. And what would Gassiev vs Usyk "represent" .. the struggle between Russia and Ukraine?

Seems like you have just given a very good reason why the fight should happen on neutral ground. A boxing match should never represent anything other than a contest to find out which man is the better fighter on the night.

Yeah they just decided to invade Ukraine overnight haha! My point is obviously other boxers have been in worse political situations and worked through these problems -- ask the Cubans.

Considering what a close fight Usyk vs Breidis was - a lot of people thought Beidis deserved to win it - I think he's going to be very pissed off if they bring in someone else instead of him. And rightly so, considering the precedent set by putting Eubank on stand-by in case Groves wasn't fit in time.

hmm...I'm wondering how would they go about picking Breidis over Dorticos, yes I know Yunier was KO -- maybe a suspension by that concussion automatically DQ's Dorticos from being a replacement, whatever. Tabiti is ok with me.

[ramplamp]

This would defeat the main purpose of having this tournament.

My thoughts exactly. Kind of defeats the purpose of even having a tournament.

[pillowfists98]

Why Tabiti? Wouldn't Briedis be the logical replacement.

[kafkod]

Yeah they just decided to invade Ukraine overnight haha! My point is obviously other boxers have been in worse political situations and worked through these problems -- ask the Cubans.

hmm...I'm wondering how would they go about picking Breidis over Dorticos, yes I know Yunier was KO -- maybe a suspension by that concussion automatically DQ's Dorticos from being a replacement, whatever. Tabiti is ok with me.

I doubt they decided to do it overnight, but Russia invaded the Crimea in 2014, a year after the Wlad/Povetkin fight.

No way should Dorticos be fighting anybody so soon after getting KO'd and taking the amount of punishment he took against Gassiev .. and especially not Gassiev again! I would literally fear for his life if that happened. Some fighters have too much heart for their own good.

And Breidis makes more sense anyway, as he lost at the same stage of the tournament and it would be a new match-up, like Eubank vs Smith.

If Smith had gotten injured in his semi, I doubt very much that the tournament organisers would have considered bringing Eubank back to fight Groves again.

[redmish]

What negotiations? This should all have been sorted before the tournament began. If this fight doesn't happen the whole tournament was pointless.