World Boxing Super Series

The lure of $50 million could attract elite talent to World Boxing Super Series
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-lure-of-50-million-could-attract-elite-talent-to-world-boxing-super-series-214501653.html
by Kevin Iole

An annual tournament featuring 16 world-rated fighters in two weight classes called the World Boxing Super Series was announced in New York on Thursday.

And though neither the weight classes nor the boxers were announced, the $50 million purse money that is at stake figures to attract interest from all boxers, with the possible exception of those in Floyd Mayweather’s tax bracket.

The brainchild of German promoter Kalle Sauerland, the event will feature eight boxers in each class, extending from September through May and could net the winning fighters in the range of $10 million apiece.

The Muhammad Ali Trophy, which was designed in cooperation with the late champion’s family, will be given to the winners.

There are many details still to be announced, but the money alone is enough to give it credibility. Richard Schaefer, the founder of Ringstar Sports, is also involved and said he thinks it has the potential to be a hit.

He was skeptical at first, but became a believer.

“I went into the [exploratory] meeting with an open mind,” Schaefer said on a conference call. “When I started to realize the quality of the material, the quality of the people, I immediately knew this is going to be something I not only wanted to be involved in, but [that] will succeed.”

Tournament quarterfinals will be held in September and October. The semifinals will be in January and February and the finals in May. That means the fighters who reach the finals will fight three times in nine months.

There will be reserve fighters, who will compete in undercard bouts, and the highest-ranked reserve fighter still alive can step in to replace an injured fighter.

It’s hard to get fans excited without fighter names, but Schaefer said they’re hoping to get at least two world champions in each bracket and that all fighters would be ranked in the top 15.

The $50 million seasonal prize money will be split between the two weight classes, though it may not be a 50-50 split. If, for instance, there are heavyweights on one side and flyweights on the the other, a greater percentage of the $50 million could be allotted to the heavyweights.

But assuming a $25 million split for each side, it will guarantee that every fighter would make at least $1 million on average.
In the quarterfinals, there will be seven fights. Under one hypothetical scenario Schaefer discussed, all eight fighters would be guaranteed $1 million for their opening round bouts, with the four winners each getting a $500,000 bonus. That would add another $2 million to the first round and would mean $10 million of the $25 million would be paid out in the quarterfinals.

With four fighters in the semifinals, then each fighter could be guaranteed $1.5 million, with a $1 million bonus to each winner. That would mean the winners would make $2.5 million each and that the total spent in the semifinals would be $8 million.

And then in the finals, each fighter could be guaranteed $2.5 million and a win bonus of $2 million.

Adding that up, the winner under that scenario would make $1.5 million in the first round, $2.5 million in the second round and $4.5 million in the finals. That would mean $8.5 million over three fights for the winner.

By way of comparison, Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia were each paid $2 million for their welterweight title unification fight Saturday in Brooklyn that did tremendous ratings.

Those payouts for the WBSS are theoretical, but will be in that realm, which means that for many of the lighter weight classes, it will be vastly more than they’ve ever made.

Worldwide TV rights have already been sold except for the U.S. and Scandinavia. Showtime is negotiating with the World Boxing Super Series for the U.S. rights.

Half of the tournament, Schaefer said, will be held in the U.S. and half in the rest of the world, with the focus on Europe. The weight classes and the fighters will be announced in June. The four top seeds will be allowed to choose who they want to fight in the opening round, and then they’ll be placed into brackets.

It’s an intriguing concept, but will only work for a U.S. audience if there are recognizable names and elite fighters in the field.
It’s a stretch to pull off, but it could be a home run if all goes according to plan.

Sounds really interesting, hoping it can be something similar to the super six

Could be absolutely huge! If it works out the way they are describing there would be some pretty great fights guaranteed across any division. The money being talked about is more than the majority of top boxers could expect to make as well.

I think it could be the first step towards a UFC style boxing promotion which is something that boxing needs

Boxing does need a shake up - that's certain. But we do need to remember that for all its plus points, when the Super 6 had injuries we got a well past his best Glen Johnson and the not great in the first place Allan Green. Hardly the top of the pile.

Still it looks like there's backup plans in place to avoid similar issues so this could be fantastic. I wonder which weights they're looking at and who will (and won't) sign up?

Sounds amazing. Would love to see Welter and Feather categories. Be some great fights potentially!

Featherweight: Frampton, LSC, Mares, Quiqq, Selby, Warrington, Valdez?

Welterweight: Brook, Khan, Pacquiao, Thurman, Garcia, Spence, Bradley?

Be a cracking concept if they pull it off. All be in competitive fights and not stupid tune ups or mandatories....all guaranteed very very high purses....and we could get regular fights (3 in 9 months for some class fighters).

Barely see them once these days.

I'm hoping that one of the weights will be around the 130lb mark....even if they did it at a catchweight of sorts...between 126-135 you have the likes of Garcia, Lomachenko, Selby, Frampton, Mares, Gervonta, Linares...! Imagine just 4 or 5 of those guys lining up. Incredible.

They don't need to go anywhere near the 147lb'ers given we just had Garcia/Thurman...we have Spence and Brook coming up and we've already had Pacman/Bradley twice so I would rule out that division. Light Welter doesn't have the names...Heavyweight already has Wlad/Joshua happening and you would imagine if the US networks wanted it then Wilder vs the winner will happen easily enough..

Light Middle/Middle may be an option...probably the only way to entice Alvarez to possibly face Golovkin...

To be honest...outside of those 3 mentioned I don't see where the clamour for such a thing would exist across the other divisons.

owen10ozzy wrote:I'm hoping that one of the weights will be around the 130lb mark....even if they did it at a catchweight of sorts...between 126-135 you have the likes of Garcia, Lomachenko, Selby, Frampton, Mares, Gervonta, Linares...! Imagine just 4 or 5 of those guys lining up. Incredible.

They don't need to go anywhere near the 147lb'ers given we just had Garcia/Thurman...we have Spence and Brook coming up and we've already had Pacman/Bradley twice so I would rule out that division. Light Welter doesn't have the names...Heavyweight already has Wlad/Joshua happening and you would imagine if the US networks wanted it then Wilder vs the winner will happen easily enough..

Light Middle/Middle may be an option...probably the only way to entice Alvarez to possibly face Golovkin...

To be honest...outside of those 3 mentioned I don't see where the clamour for such a thing would exist across the other divisons.

Yep - Canelo and his team have stated they could face the winner of Stevens vs Lemiux? Ducking I am a twonk of the highest order

Wow; hadn't heard that....if that's true then even the biggest Golovkin detractor could not label him as being at fault for not fighting the biggest names..and I do not buy into the fact he could move up for Ward...certainly not now..he is no bigger than 164 walking weight.

Absolute farce if Alvarez doesn't face GGG next...anyhow lets not debate that on this thread..or any other since it's been done to death...

This is a great concept and if they have thought of all avenues in terms of injuries/doping pull outs etc then we could be looking at a game changer...that being said..with it's track record im sure boxing will find a way to dissapoint even with something like this.

The Heavyweight division seems to be filled with mega fights so I guess this won't be one of the divisions. Pity because it needs to establish an alpha. I'd love for the cruiserweight division to get this though

Very ambitious. Really hope it works and like the idea of it being in two different weights.

Featherweight and Cruiser would be my two choices for the weight classes. If they could somehow get Usyk, Gassiev, the winner of Huck/Bredis and then somebody like Lebedev or Dorticos as the 4 seeds you could be in for some fantastic match ups.

Although I think given the lack of US contenders at the weight it would probably rule it out of being one of the options.

kingraf wrote:The Heavyweight division seems to be filled with mega fights so I guess this won't be one of the divisions. Pity because it needs to establish an alpha. I'd love for the cruiserweight division to get this though

Really? Haye vs the beast that is Bellew? Wilder and Joshua fighting TBA up to three weeks before their fight night? Fury's cousin getting a shot at a title in New Zealand? Only fight of note is Joshua vs a probably gun shy ex champ who hasn't fought for 18 months. Not what I would call mega fights. In fairness, to have mega fights, you do need some talent and the heavyweight division is not particularly rife with it at present.

Bring back Audley he'd clean up the division, keep the faith

bhb001 wrote:

kingraf wrote:The Heavyweight division seems to be filled with mega fights so I guess this won't be one of the divisions. Pity because it needs to establish an alpha. I'd love for the cruiserweight division to get this though

Really? Haye vs the beast that is Bellew? Wilder and Joshua fighting TBA up to three weeks before their fight night? Fury's cousin getting a shot at a title in New Zealand? Only fight of note is Joshua vs a probably gun shy ex champ who hasn't fought for 18 months. Not what I would call mega fights. In fairness, to have mega fights, you do need some talent and the heavyweight division is not particularly rife with it at present.

No Mega fights in heavyweight - firstly just needs to be a fight that would generate more money than they would get from the tournament, AJ as an example would get far more for fighting:

Klit (already arranged)
Wilder
Fury (Tyson if he comes back)

That could possibly be the next three years of work for him with each fight earning far in excess of the winnings for the tournament.

By this point there will probably be 2-3 new highly thought of heavyweights for him to beat. Obviously he needs to win the fights to keep the earnings high but someone as marketable as AJ wouldn't need this.

Probably end up like the tournament Don King once tried where all the fighters that want to be included have to be on his books or willing to be on his books if they won their fight.

For the lower weights this could be huge exposure if done correctly and maybe Rigo to get a fight!