Yunier Dorticos joins World Boxing Super Series

I think at this point you can list my job description as “the one who writes about cruiserweights.”

Newly-minted WBA cruiserweight champ Yunier Dorticos, rather than wait for “Super” champ Denis Lebedev, has elected to join the World Boxing Super Series’ cruiserweight lineup as its fourth entrant.

He was originally penciled in to fight Lebedev within 120 days of Lebedev’s July 10th showdown with Mark Flanagan. If all goes according to plan, joining the tournament will put him in the ring sometime in September.

The roster now includes the regular WBA champion (Dorticos), and IBF champion (Murat Gassiev), the WBC champion (Mairis Briedis), and former WBC champion from 2010 to 2014 (Krzysztof Wlodarczyk). Honestly, even if the organizers fill the rest of the field with minimumweights stacked on each other’s shoulders, it’s going to be worth watching.

I’m looking forward to their matchup arrangements, too.

The exact pairings will be determined during a Draft Gala in Monaco in early July. In each weight class, the top-seeded boxers (which will be determined by the Comosa Board) will select their quarter-final opponents from the unseeded boxers. Once the pairings are set, the exact fight dates and venues will be announced. Further participants as well as details about the Draft Gala will be revealed shortly.

This can go wrong in so many ways and I can’t wait to see exactly how.