Imagine, for a moment, that someone came to you and said they planned to put on a tournament featuring the eight best welterweight boxers in the world. He?d have them fight each other in a bracket-style tournament and those fights would be available on free TV as well as streamed free online.
Would you be interested?
Imagine that in addition to WBA/WBC champion Keith Thurman entering the field, you were also told that IBF champion Errol Spence Jr., WBO champion Jeff Horn, Lamont Peterson, Manny Pacquiao, Danny Garcia, Jessie Vargas and Shawn Porter entered.
Or, that if Pacquiao wasn?t available to fight, that super lightweight champion Terence Crawford would become the field?s final entrant?
Still interested?
Let?s say it was Crawford instead of Pacquiao in the field, and that we?d see No. 1 Crawford vs. No. 8 Vargas; No. 2 Spence vs. No. 7 Horn; No. 3 Thurman vs. No. 6 Peterson and No. 4 Garcia vs. No. 5 Porter. You could juggle the seedings however you?d like, but imagine a Crawford-Spence, Thurman-Spence or even a Crawford-Thurman finale.
If you were a boxing fan, you?d be over the moon at such news. It would be a dream scenario.
And it?s exactly what is going on in boxing now, with the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament, to next-to-no acclaim in the U.S.
The Super Series, put together by promoters Kalle Sauerland and Richard Schaefer, is about to move into its semifinal round and has already been a massive success in Europe.
It was created by the folks who made the popular Champions League soccer tournament, and it?s produced similar fireworks.
While the cruiserweight division doesn?t have the star power of the aforementioned welterweight division, all of the existing cruiserweight champions ? WBC champion Mairis Briedis, WBA champ Yunier Dorticos, IBF king Murat Gassiev and WBO champion Alexander Usyk ? entered the eight-man cruiserweight field.
The cruiserweights are down to the semifinals, where Gassiev will face Dorticos and Usyk will meet Briedis.
And the final super middleweight quarterfinal is Friday in Germany, where American Rob Brant faces Juergen Brahmer. Chris Eubank Jr. will meet George Groves in one semifinal will Callum Smith will meet the Brahmer-Brant winner in the other.
The fights have been exceptional and have pitted the best against the best ? which is what fans always say they want ? but it hasn?t gone over big in the U.S. thus far.
In part, it?s because most of the fighters in the field are based in Europe, six of the eight bouts were held in Europe and Brant is the only American of the 16 fighters in the field.
And while Brant is largely an unknown in the U.S., he?s 22-0 with 15 knockouts.
In a year filled with outstanding accomplishments, the creation and production of the World Boxing Super Series is near the top of the list, even if many in the U.S. aren?t glued to the edge of their seats.
This event proves that name recognition and marketing in boxing, at least in the U.S., is as important as the quality of the fights.
But as far as Schaefer is concerned, the first round of the first year?s event is proof that the format works.
?Anybody who has seen it has had nothing bad to say,? Schaefer told Yahoo Sports. ?The fans have had nothing but good things to say. The press has been extremely positive, There are always naysayers but I haven?t heard a thing bad about it. It has delivered. There were some obviously very good matchups going on, but even what were perceived to be the weaker matchups have delivered.
?What we?ve done here is we?ve brought the prize back into prizefighting.?
The finals of the cruiserweight and super middleweight tournaments will be held in May. For next year?s tournaments, Schaefer admitted that there is a possibility of picking weight classes which will be of more interest to American fight fans.
Neither the cruiserweight nor super middleweight divisions have much cachet in the U.S. because of the lack of an identifiable star. But if the WBSS came up with classes that promised similarly outstanding fights with more well-known names, it could be the impetus the series needs to get moving in the U.S.
?For future seasons, particularly the next season, we have internally talked about having weight classes where you could have Americans as well as perhaps Asians and Mexicans,? Schaefer said. ?They?d be fighters who mean a bit more to the U.S. market.?
