By Mike Smith: Krzysztof Glowacki, Maksim Vlasov, Mairis Briedis and Noel Mikaelian all made weight on Friday for their quarterfinal fights in the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament this Saturday on DAZN at the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Super Series)
Glowacki (30-1, 19 KOs) weighed in four pounds under the limit at 196 lbs for his quarterfinal fight against Vlasov (42-2 25 KOs) for the interim World Boxing Organization cruiserweight title. The 32-year-old Vlasov weighed in slightly heavier at 198 lbs.
Briedis (24-1, 18 KOs) weighed in at 198.4 lbs for his fight against Noel Mikaelian (23-1, 10 KOs) in a fight for the WBC diamond cruiserweight title. Mikhelian, 28, weighed in at 199.8 lbs. This fight figures to be a one-sided affair with the 33-year-old Briedis having his way with his over-matched opponent. Next to IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO cruserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, Briedis might be the second best fighter in the division. Things change quickly though in each division. Even if Briedis is the second best fighter in the weight class right now, it doesn’t mean he’s going to remain in that position for long. There are some solid fighters in the cruiserweight division like #1 WBA Yunier Dorticos, Murat Gassiev and Glowacki. If Briedis can win the World Boxing Super Series tournament, he’ll show that he’s the second best fighter in the division. Usyk is about to move up to heavyweight, and that’s going to leave a huge hole that the winner of this WBSS tournament will be able to fill.
“This is sport, this is boxing and we are going for new goals,“ said Briedis. “I predict a good show and very good boxing.”
Mikaelian, 28, is going to need to come up with a strategy to deal with Briedis’ superior punching power and boxing skills. This fight is going to be a really tough one for Mikaelian. He doesn’t have much pop in his punches, and he can be beaten by bigger punchers than himself.
Mikaelian was beaten by 37-year-old former IBF/WBC cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk last year in May 2017. This was before Wlodarczyk was destroyed by Murat Gassiev in a 3rd round knockout in October of last year. Mikaelian came back from that loss to defeat Isiah Thomas by a 10 round unanimous decision last year in September 2017. Mikaelian has been inactive ever since then, which is not good for him considering that he’s about to face arguably the best opponent of his career on Saturday night in Briedis.
This will be Briedis’ second fight since losing his WBC cruiserweight title to Usyk last January in WBSS 1 in Riga, Latvia. Usyk went on to win the tournament to capture the Muhammad Ali trophy. Briedis made it tough on Usyk in winning many of the early rounds and coming close to getting the victory. In the end, Usyk had the better engine and he was able to take command of the fight in the last four rounds to get the victory in winning a 12 round split decision. Briedis came back from the loss to defeat Brandon Deslaurier by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision last summer on July 21 in Moscow, Russia. Briedis looked good in beating a guy that was out of his class.
