This Saturday, it’s the two final fights in the WBSS opening round, including Mairis Briedis and Krzysztof Glowacki.
This Saturday, the quarterfinal round of this season’s World Boxing Super Series comes to a close with a pair of fights in the Cruiserweight (200 lbs.) tournament. The fights are live from Chicago, and will stream live on DAZN (as well as a live stream on Youtube for UK viewers) this Saturday, November 10, with a fight time of 8:00 p.m. ET. Here is a preview of Saturday’s action.
Mairis Briedis (24-1; 18 KOs) vs. Noel Mikaelian (23-1; 10 KOs) – Cruiserweight Quarterfinal
Briedis is the consensus #2 Cruiserweight in the world behind only Oleksandr Usyk. Briedis and Usyk met in the semi-finals of the first WBSS Cruiserweight tournament in January, with Usyk taking a hard fought majority decision win. Now, with him out of the tournament, Briedis is the man to beat. He’s had one easy bounce back win since, and is poised to take this entire field and set up a rematch with the champ. Mikaelian (also billed at times as Noel Gevor, but WBSS is going with Mikaelian) turned pro in 2011, and has fought primarily in his home country of Germany. He suffered his first loss last June, dropping a decision to Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, then came back with a respectable win over Isiah Thomas. He’s been inactive for 14 months. Mikaelian is not a bad fighter, and more deserving of a spot in this field than some of the other quarterfinalists. But Briedis is a nightmare first round opponent for anyone.
Prediction: Mairis Briedis, KO
Krzysztof Glowacki (30-1; 19 KOs) vs. Maksim Vlasov (42-2; 25 KOs) – Cruiserweight Quarterfinal
This is a really good match-up between the #5 ranked Glowacki and #6 ranked Vlasov. Odds are virtually dead even for this one, which makes sense. Glowacki is a 10 year pro, and may be one of the more known fighters in the division thanks to his incredible 2015 fight of the year candidate war with Marco Huck (seriously, if you have not seen that fight, you need to fix that). That was a huge win for Glowacki, and moved him up the ranks while giving him the WBO belt. That rise ended with a loss to Usyk two years ago (a common theme in this division). He’s 4-0 since, though none of those 4 are worth noting. Vlasov has had quite the career, with 44 fights dating back to 2005. But at 32 years old, he’s still going strong. Vlasov has moved up in weight over the years, starting his career all the way down as a 160 pound Middleweight. He’s certainly done well for himself and comes in on a 12 fight win streak – those 12 are better than Glowacki’s last 4, but there’s no win close to Huck on his resume. In a nice piece of match-making the winner here will take on the Briedis vs. Mikaelian winner. So look for this to be a close, hard-fought battle between two good veterans – but not a match-up that is likely to determine a finalist.
Prediction: Krzysztof Glowacki, UD