After months of waiting with seemingly no end in sight, the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight finals finally has a date and venue.
The WBSS announced that Mairis Briedis vs. Yuniel Dorticos for the IBF world title and Muhammad Ali Trophy will take place on March 21 at Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia. The tournament finale will be streamed on DAZN.
The fight was originally going to include the WBO title but the belt was declared vacant after the governing body ordered him to fight Krzysztof Glowacki in a rematch of their WBSS semifinal match in June that was marred by controversy. Briedis was contractually obligated to fight in the tournament final and so, there was no conceivable way for him to fight Glowacki and not Dorticos next.
Briedis entered the tournament as arguably the favorite to win the whole thing. In the first round, which took place in November 2018, Briedis won a 12-round decision against Noel Gevor and then scored a controversial third-round win over Glowacki. Briedis competed in the WBSS' first cruiserweight tournament, advancing to the semifinals where he lost to eventual undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Dorticos, who also was a semifinalist in the first WBSS 200-pound tournament, started his run by scoring a close, unanimous decision win against Mateusz Masternak. Dorticos then knocked out Andrew Tabiti in the 10th round of their semifinal bout last June.
The fight officially puts an end to the second season of the World Boxing Super Series. The other two tournaments from this season wrapped up last year with Josh Taylor defeating Regis Prograis to win the 140-pound tournament as well as unify the WBA and IBF titles and Naoya Inoue stopping Nonito Donaire to win the 118-pound tournament and unify the WBA and IBF belts.
