WSB’s Four Best Teams Set for Penultimate Battle in Quest for World Series of Boxing Team Title:
Four months of competition have come down to this as the World Series of Boxing (WSB) semifinals get underway Saturday, April 9, featuring 40 boxers from four teams intent on leading their teams to inaugural WSB team title.
Team pride and a $500,000 purse are on the line starting this week with the first semifinal bouts taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan and Astana, Kazakhstan. In the first semifinal, the Baku Fires, the WSB’s top team overall during the regular season, will take on Paris United, winner’s of the Europe conference. The second semifinal will feature top Americas conference finisher the Los Angeles Matadors making the long trek to take on the Astana Arlans, who finished second in a tough Asia conference.
In the WSB’s playoff format, each semifinalist faces their opponent once at home and once away in the league’s five weight classes, each time with a different squad. The winners go through to the WSB team championships in Guiyang, China on May 6-7 to compete for the half a million dollar title of WSB Champion 2010-2011.
“After many weeks of hard work by all the teams in the World Series of Boxing, we now know who the four top teams are,” said AIIBA President and WSB Chairman of the Board Dr C. K. Wu. “They have already won at least $50,000 and from this weekend on they will be competing for a place in the team finals in Guiyang and a chance to pick up the top prize of half a million dollars. The semi-finals will see a full squad of 10 boxers competing, adding an extra element of suspense to the teams’ tactics over their two-leg home and away matches.
“With the teams facing opponents from outside their conferences for the first time, I’m sure that we will see some thrilling bouts in Astana and Baku this weekend and I look forward to seeing the last semi-final in Los Angeles in two weeks time.”
Below, you’ll find full previews from each of the two semi-final bouts taking place Saturday.
Paris United vs. Baku Fires Preview
Paris United finished first in the Europe conference, clinching the first playoff spot in the league after a tight battle with Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder throughout the season. The United, who are coached by Kevin Rabaud, completed the WSB regular season with a 9-3 record overall, winning 39 bouts to 20 losses. Paris won the Europe conference behind the strong campaigns of bantamweight Nordine Oubaali and light heavyweight Ludovic Groguhe who finished with a combined 10-0 record and will represent the United in the WSB Individual Championships at the end of May.
Lightweight Rachid Azzedine also enjoyed much success during the WSB season, finishing with an undefeated 5-0 record to finish just outside the top-two WSB fighters selected for the Individual Championships.
For their first matchup with Baku, coach Rabaud has shuffled his lineup and is counting on two relatively inexperienced WSB fighters to help carry the day for his Paris squad. The United will travel to Baku with the following fighters: Georgian bantamweight Giorgi Kilanava, who was a 2009 World Championships competitor but was 0-1 in WSB bouts this season; Algerian lightweight Abdelkader Chadi, who competed in the 2008 Olympic Games but has yet to step in the ring as a WSB fighter; middleweight Stephane Cuevas (3-0) of France, light heavyweight Ludovic Groguhe (5-0) and heavyweight Tony Yoka (3-2) of France.
Led by head coach Gamzat Agayev, Baku was the class of the WSB’s inaugural first season with 10-2 record overall, winning 41 bouts against 19 losses. They are anchored by a trio of strong contenders including heavyweight Magomedrasul Medshidov and Soltan Migitnov who finished with a combined 9-0 record and will represent the Fires in the WSB Individual Championships.
Bantamweight Magomed Abdulhamidov is another strong fighter for the Fires having finished with a 5-1 regular season record to finish third in the WSB rankings and he’ll get things started for the Fires at home Saturday night. Joining him will be Semen Grivachev (1-1) of Russia, Mahamed Nurudzinau, a two-time World Championships competitor and 2008 Olympian from Belarus who brings a 2-1 record into the play-offs; Denys Poyatsyka, a 2007 World Championships qualifier with 1-2 WSB record out of the Ukraine; and Magomedrasul Medzhidov (5-0) of Azerbaijan.
“We don’t really have a preference for the opponent, and we’ll see who is stronger,” said Rizvan Genzhiyev, General Director of the Baku Fires.
Los Angeles Matadors vs. Astana Arlans Preview
After dominating league play early, the Los Angeles Matadors struggled to a 2-3 record to close out the season, leaving their playoff berth in doubt until a decisive 4-1 win against the Mexico City Guerreros on the final week of the season. Nevertheless, the team still finished with an 8-4 record with 40 wins in the team’s 60 bouts behind head coach Manny Robles.
While each of the other three playoff teams have two representatives competing in the WSB Individual Championships, the Matadors won’t have any fighters competing for that prestigious Olympic berth. Despite this fact, the Matadors are not void of class fighters who made a name for themselves throughout the year. In fact, the Matadors had as many boxers finish in the top-10 of the individual rankings (7) as did Paris and Astana. They also had as many top-five fighters (5) as did Paris to lead the league.
Competing alongside Warren will be Brazil’s Everton Lopes (3-0), Russell Lamour (4-1), Ukrainian Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (4-1) and David Imoesiri (5-1).
“The Matadors are excited to get the first ever global playoffs started and to showcase “Matador Nation” to the rest of the world,” said Matador Managing Partner Ray Doustdar. “We feel extremely confident with the boxers that will compete against Astana and the skills that our coaches have instilled in this team throughout the season. The Matadors are a force to be reckoned with.”
The Astana Arlans advanced to the WSB playoffs by virtue of the league’s second-best record. Despite finishing second to Baku in the Asia conference, the Arlans, behind the leadership of head coach Beibut Yeszhanov, actually recorded the most number of wins with 44 victories in 60 bouts – three more than any other team in the WSB.
The Arlans have dominated the lightest weight classes within their conference led by the tandem of bantamweight Kanat Abutalipov and lightweight Yerzhan Mussafirov. Together, they’ve combined for a 12-0 record to form the most decorated 1-2 punch of any WSB team still competing.
Those two Arlans will go a long way in deciding the outcome of the series, but first they turn matters over to their fellow teammates as they await their fights in LA. For now, the Arlans will rely on the following impressive roster that includes an Olympian and/or a World Championships competitor in all five weight classes to try and gain early momentum in this two-fight series: bantamweight Mirzhan Rakihmzhamov, a 2004 Olympian and 2007 World Championships competitor with a 2-1 WSB record; lightweight Merey Akshalov, a 2007 World Championships competitor with a 3-2 record on the season; middleweight Kanat Slam, a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist and 2009 World Championships bronze medalist with a 3-1 WSB record; light heavyweight Ramzjon Ahmedov, a 2009 World Championships quarterfinalist with a 3-1 record from Uzbekistan; and heavyweight Ruslan Myrasatayev, a 2008 Olympian that comes into his play-off bout with a 3-1 record.
Overall, the team facing the Matadors this weekend enters the competition with a 14-6 record.
“First off, I’m very happy we made it to the play-offs and we didn’t really care which team would be our opponent,” said Bolat Mankenov, General Director of the Astana Arlans. “The problem is that we haven’t seen any matches from the Americas conference yet, but we are familiar with the American style of boxing. I hope that our fans will give the Los Angeles boxers a warm welcome at our venue.”
The first semi-final gets underway from Baku at 8:00 pm local time, with the LA/Astana match getting started shortly thereafter with first bout getting underway at 8:30 pm local time.
Check out worldseriesboxing.com for all the results from the semi-finals bouts.
