The third season of the World Boxing Super Series has a working date, but the weight classes are still up in the air.
Nisse Sauerland, who runs the WBSS with his brother Kalle, told FightHubTV at the Caleb Plant-Vincent Feigenbutz post-fight press conference in Nashville that he expects the next installment of the tournament will begin in the last quarter of the year.
“We’re gearing up for season three, which will start September, October time,” Sauerland said.
The season two cruiserweight finals between Yunier Dorticos and Mairis Briedis has been set for March 21 in Riga, Latvia.
Sauerland, however, wouldn’t tip his hand as to which weight classes they would be concentrating on for their next installment.
“Me and my brother have sort of given up calling weights,” Sauerland said. “Because whenever (somebody says), ‘ah, that would be a great weight, middleweights,’ then suddenly loads of things happens and it just doesn’t become possible. It’s just like a dream that doesn’t come true.We’ll start calling that closer to the time. Boxing can change very quickly.”
Sauerland says he expects to finalize which weight classes will be featured in the next season by “May, June time.”
As for the weight classes that he’s most personally keen on, Sauerland cited a few.
“Lightweights would be great. There’s a lot of weight classes I like at the moment,” he said. “Middleweight, super middles again. Lots of interesting weights out there.”
Since its inception in 2017, the WBSS has been heavily lauded for finding a way to get the best fighters to face each other in an otherwise fragmented sport beleaguered by internal politics. Cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk and super middleweight Callum Smith were anointed as the winners of the first season. Last year, the WBSS crowned Josh Taylor and Naoya Inoue as (partially) unified titleholders in the junior welterweight and bantamweight tournaments, respectively.