WBSS Announces Bantamweight Tournament, Three Champions Competing
The World Boxing Super Series has announced that three world champions will take part in an upcoming bantamweight tournament.
In a press conference in the United Kingdom, the World Boxing Super Series announced that season two of the global tournament will have three tournaments instead of two as was the case last season. The bantamweight tournament has been announced with the other two tournaments being announced in the coming weeks.
Although not revealed, there is heavy speculation one of the remaining tournaments will be a junior welterweight tournament. According to reports, neither bantamweight and junior welterweight tournaments have their full eight-man roster set. The current junior welterweight tournament field is expected to have the following boxers when their announcement happens:
- WBA champion Kiryl Relikh
- WBA mandatory challenger Eduard Troyanovski
- Ivan Baranchyk, ordered to fight for the vacant IBF title
- Anthony Yigit, ordered to fight for the vacant IBF title
- Interim WBC champion Regis Prograis
As for the bantamweight tournament, here are the boxers that were announced in the press conference:
- WBA champion Ryan Burnett
- WBO champion Zolani Tete
- IBF champion Emmanuel Rodriguez
The junior welterweight tournament may not have the full roster, but two fights have reportedly been locked in due to previous orders issued by the WBA and IBF. In a quarterfinal bout, Relikh is expected to fight Troyanovski as Troyanovski is the WBA’s mandatory challenger. Baranchyk and Yigit are expected to fight each other for the vacant IBF title in another quarterfinal fight.
The WBSS is currently in the midst of concluding its super middleweight and cruiserweight tournaments, but injuries to fighters competing on both tournament finals have postponed those fights. In the cruiserweight finals, Oleksandr Usyk fill face off against Murat Gassiev to unify the WBA, WBO, WBC, IBF and Ring Magazine titles and in the super middleweight finals, George Groves will fight Callum Smith to unify the WBA “Super” and WBC Diamond titles.
