LEFTOVERS: Briedis and Glowacki [right] aim to ill the hole left by Usyk at cruiserweight
WITH its bantam and super-lightweight finalists decided, the World Boxing Super Series holds its cruiserweight semis on Saturday (June 15) at the Riga Arena in Latvia’s capital. And a tournament that has already delivered quality entertainment looks set to continue that trend, if one can rely on the participants’ records: the cruiser final four combine for an impressive 96 wins and just three defeats (one each for three of the quartet). Home interest centres on Mairis Briedis against Polish southpaw Krzysztof Glowacki, but the other semi also holds plenty of intrigue, pitting Cuban banger Yunier Dorticos against unbeaten American Andrew Tabiti. Briedis will be the man most fans have come to see, yet he faces no easy task in Glowacki (who should also have support in the hall, given Poland is not far from Latvia). For both men, their lone setback came against the outstanding Oleksandr Usyk; Briedis via majority decision in the semi-final of the first WBSS tournament in January 2018, and Glowacki on a unanimous verdict in a September 2016 WBO title challenge. Given what Usyk has gone on to achieve – dominate Murat Gassiev in the first WBSS final and hammer Tony Bellew into retirement – it’s not a bad result for either man, and avoiding defeat on one judge’s card actually looks even more impressive for Briedis. Usyk’s recent move up to heavyweight has led to an upgrade in the titles at stake on Saturday: Glowacki now comes in as the full WBO champ (he was previously Interim) and the vacant WBC belt is now also on the line.
It’s always possible Usyk may have taken something out of both; Glowacki didn’t look particularly good beating Serhiy Radchenko in January 2018 – he got dropped en route to an eight-round points victory over the six-fight novice – while 10 months later Briedis escaped with a controversial decision over Noel Gevor in the WBSS quarterfinal. But against each other they should make a good fight, with Glowacki the slicker boxer and Briedis the puncher. Both men have been campaigning at world level for several years now. Glowacki holds world title wins over Marco Huck (KO 11 rounds) and Steve Cunningham (points), while Briedis has beaten Huck (points) and tricky Cuban Mike Perez (also over the 12-round distance) in championship contests