On the fringe of the 2012/2013 World Series of Boxing Franchise Conference held over this week-end in Lausanne, Switzerland, was made today the Group Draw of this Season III. All 12 WSB Franchises were divided into two worldwide groups, bringing a lot of anticipation in all ranks. Just a few hours after the 12 World Series of Boxing Franchises discovered in which Group they will compete in the Regular Season, all General Managers and Coaches present at the 2012/2013 Franchise Conference had the opportunity to strengthen their squads with the International Boxers Draft.
“As the Team Champions, we were ready to take on anyone. But let’s be honest, this Group is a really tough one”, declared Claudio Ballor, General Manager of the Milano Thunder. “We are happy because we will have some very interesting travels, but also some kind of revenge”.
Group A
Dynamo Moscow
India Fighters
Azerbaijan Baku Fires
Argentina Condors
Mexico Guerreros
Hussars Poland
Group B
Milano Thunder
Germany Eagles
Ukraine
Kazakhstan Astana Arlans
USA
Great Britain (*)
“We are really happy about this draw, we will have some very interesting opponents”, stated Hernán Salvo, General Manager of the Argentina Condors. “It is our first season in WSB and we hope that this Group A will be good with us”.
“It is extremely exciting to learn who Ukraine will be facing in its first WSB season”, declared Volodymyr Prodyvus, President of the Ukrainian Boxing Federation. “Our Group is very strong and it’s great, we like challenges. Competing with teams such as Milano, the Champions or Kazakhstan, which always has a strong line-up… I mean everyone in Ukraine will be excited about all these matches. Now we have even more motivation to gather the best possible line-up of Ukrainian boxers. We are eagerly waiting November 16th and are already starting to spread the word around the country about our match against Kazakhstan Astana Arlans.”
Same as last season, tiebreakers have also been drawn for each of the seven playoff matches. They are as follows.
Quarter-Final 1: Middleweight
Quarter-Final 2: Bantamweight
Quarter-Final 3: Light Heavyweight
Quarter-Final 4: Middleweight
Semi-Final 1: Middleweight
Semi-Final 2: Lightweight
Team Final: Bantamweight
(*) World Series of Boxing is currently having final discussions with the British Boxing Association and therefore the Franchise was provisionally included in this Group Draw.
One year after the 2011/2012 Draft was held in Baku (Azerbaijan), on the rest-day of the 2011 AIBA World Boxing Championships, where 21 international boxers were chosen, an additional 27 were again drafted from a list of 118 available athletes, representing 40 countries from all five continents.
Amongst these 27 drafted boxers, nine have participated in the London 2012 Olympic Games with one winning a bronze medal (Irishman Michael Conlan) and four reaching the quarter-finals.
The Franchises which have drafted the biggest number of boxers are the Kazakhstan Astana Arlans and Mexico Guerreros with five each. Eight Heavyweights and Light Heavyweights have been drafted which makes these weight categories the most “attractive” ones. In comparison, only one Lightweight has been drafted.
Ireland is the country that has seen the biggest number of its boxers drafted (six). After this Draft, WSB is delighted to welcome its very first fighters from Estonia (Ainar Karlson), Iran (Ehsan Rouzbahani) and South Africa (Siphiwe Lusizi).
