By Mike Smith: Former WBC cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis (25-1, 18 KOs) is preparing for his semi-final match in the World Boxing Super Series tournament against former WBO champion Krzysztof Glowacki (31-1, 19 KOs) on June 15 at the Arena Riga, Riga.
Briedis, 34, is working with trainer Vasily Chernigov to get ready to face the hard hitting southpaw Glowacki of Poland for their fight next month. Briedis needs to put in a better performance against Glowacki than he did in his quarterfinal fight against Noel Mikaelian (23-2, 10 KOs), who he beat by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision last November at the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois. Briedis was seen as the loser against the 28-year-old German based Mikaelian in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.
The taller, longer-armed 6’2 1/2″ Mikaelian out-boxed Briedis virtually the entire fight, and looked like the much better fighter of the two at the end. The judges saw it differently in scoring it for Briedis by the scores 114-112, 115-111 and 116-110. Boxing News 24 scored it for Mikaelian by a 116-112 score. With the win, Briedis captured the WBC Diamond cruiserweight title. Mikaelian wasn’t too happy about the loss, as it as his second controversial defeat in his last three fights. Mikaelian lost to former IBF/WBC cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (57-4-1, 39 KOs) by a 12 round split decision in May 2017 in Poland.
Briedis needs to up his game to beat Glowacki
Briedis hasn’t looked sharp since his 12 round majority decision loss to Oleksandr Usyk in the semifinals of the first WBSS cruiserweight tournament last year in January 2018 in Riga, Latvia.
Glowacki, 32, is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision win over Maksim Vlasov (42-3, 25 KOs) last November in Chicago. Glowacki won a close decision by the scores 115-112, 117-110 and 118-110. Glowacki had Vlasov hurt late in the fight, but he couldn’t put him away. Glowacki was too one-dimensional with his offense in just going for single left hands and right hooks. Vlasov knew what was coming most of the time, and he was able to cover up for get out of the way of Glowacki’s big left hand shots.
Going by the way Glowacki looked in beating Vlasov, you’d have to give him a very good chance of defeating Briedis on June 15. As long as the fight is scored in a sensible way, Glowacki has an excellent shot at winning this fight. His punching power could take the judges out of play for this fight. The venue favors Briedis. Glowacki might need a really dominating performance for him to win this fight.
Yunier Dorticos vs. Andrew Tabiti – preview
In other semifinal final action in the WBSS cruiserweight tournament on the same card, former WBA champion Yunier Dorticos (23-1, 21 KOs) will be taking on unbeaten Andrew Tabiti (17-0, 13 KOs). Dorticos, 33, struggled to defeat Mateusz Masternak by a close 12 round unanimous decision in the quarterfinal of the WBSS tournament last October in Orlando, Florida. Masternak took over the fight in the later rounds after Dorticos gassed out, and he came close to stopping him. Last year, Dorticos was stopped in the semi-final of the first World Boxing Super Series tournament by Murat Gassiev in February 2018. Dorticos was out of the ring after that until taking on the always tough Masternak last October. That was a tough opponent for Dorticos to fight with him coming off of a knockout loss to Gassiev.