Fresh off the heels of crowning the first Muhammad Ali Trophy winner and undisputed cruiserweight WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF cruiserweight champion, the World Boxing Super Series is ready to do a second cruiserweight tournament.
The WBSS announced on Twitter that the third and final tournament of the second season will be another cruiserweight tourney. Participants for the upcoming cruiserweight tournament will be announced later in the week. The cruiserweights will now join a season that will also feature a bantamweight and junior welterweight tournament, all set to start later this year.
The first cruiserweight tournament featured a world champion from each of the four major governing bodies. The tournament, which ran from 2017 to 2018, took place mostly in Europe and ended with Oleksandr Usyk defeating Murat Gassiev to become the first man to unify the WBA, WBO, WBC, IBF and Ring Magazine titles at 200 pounds.
Although Usyk is the undisputed champion, there are still three WBA titleholders that are also considered world champions, albeit with titles of lesser significance than Usyk’s WBA “super” championship: “regular” champion Beibut Shumenov, “interim” champion Arsen Goulamirian and “champion in recess” Denis Lebedev.
Usyk’s involvement in the WBSS for the second time is unknown at this point. Usyk is negotiating a fight with former champion Tony Bellew. Not only is Usyk in talks with Bellew, but also considering a move up to heavyweight to challenge for Anthony Joshua’s unified heavyweight titles.
As with the bantamweights and junior welterweights, the second cruiserweight tournament will be streamed in the United States and Canada on the DAZN streaming service.
