:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62970606/usa_today_11600373.0.jpg)
With the World Boxing Super Series tournaments seemingly still on hold, IBF junior welterweight titleholder Ivan Baranchyk has dropped out of the 140-pound tournament, one of three currently running.
ESPN reports that Baranchyk is leaving the tournament “due to frustrations over financial issues, a semifinal round that was supposed to take place between January and March and has still not been scheduled, and lack of communication from tournament organizers,” according to his manager David McWater.
There have been questions swirling around the future of the tournaments for a while now, and this is certainly not what you would call good news.
Russian-born Baranchyk (19-0, 12 KO) won the then-vacant IBF belt in the first round of the tournament, stopping Anthony Yigit on Oct. 27 in New Orleans. He was set to face Scotland’s Josh Taylor in the semifinal round. The other semifinal is — or was — scheduled to be Regis Prograis vs Kiryl Relikh.