Category: Tournaments

20 Predictions for 2020: PREDICTION number 16 - WBSS Season 3 to feature a smaller weight class

12/20/2019

As we head towards a new year we've decided to look into our glass balls, our tea leaves and our palms to come up with 20 predictions which will be posted over the coming weeks for what we think will happen in 2020. So far our predictions haven't been the best though they've not all been wrong.

In 2013 we predicted that Naoya Inoue, his brother Takuma and Kosei Tanaka would all win world titles. Between them they've won a few world titles, though Takuma has yet to win a proper world title. That same year we also predicted a growth in Chinese boxing, and this arguably happened despite the fact the Macau side of things has died off. We also predicted a growth in Asian fighters making a name for themselves in the US, this was before Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Naoya Inoue or Kazuto Ioka had fought on US soil, and before the wave of Uzbek's had began to attract US attention.

Unlike the past, where we have made all of our predictions in 1 article, we'll be spreading these ones out with 1 prediction per article, and going more in depth than we have in the past.

PREDICTION number 16 - WBSS Season 3 to feature a smaller weight class
Recently we predicted more tournaments, and have regularly confessed our love of tournaments and what they stand for in boxing. Be it tournaments at the very highest level, such as the WBSS of the lower level, with novice tournaments like Rookie of the Year, we love the idea behind tournament boxing. We know their has been issues with Season 2 of the WBSS, with rumoured financial struggles, and pretty obvious issues with scheduling, which almost every finalist has complained about, but in the end the tournaments at 140lbs and 118lbs both delivered. They may not have been as smooth as we'd have all liked, but they were worth the wait!

Given the eventual successes of the WBSS Season 2 finals, and the eventual linking up of WBSS and Sky Sports in the UK, we're expecting a third season and it makes sense for the team behind WBSS to again try to build the brand across various geographical fan bases. In Season 2 we had the Bantamweight tournament involving fighters from Japan, Australia, Puerto Rico, the UK, South Africa, Russia, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. Amazingly 8 different countries were accounted for by the nationality of the fighters and all 8 men were entering the competition with the belief they could win.

We could have something very similar if we again allowed the little men to shine. For example at Flyweight we could easily end up with Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Philippines, China and Pakistan. Or at Light Flyweight, arguably the best division for a WBSS tournament, we could have fighters from Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Cuba, South Africa, Panama, Nicaragua and Venezuela all mixing.

The lower weight classes are also, financially, less risky, and promotionally probably more simple. The fighters get paid less, so will expect less, their promoters are typically less about games and more about making names. Fighters like Kenshiro Teraji, Carlos Canizales, Hiroto Kyoguchi and Felix Alvarado, all at Light Flyweight, and Flyweights like Kosei Tanaka, Moruti Mthalane, Cristofer Rosales and Muhammad Waseem, have all looked to increase their name recognition in one way or another. Having them in global tournaments would be huge for their profiles.

The best thing about tournaments in these lower weights is that they could be much, much easier to stage. If the WBSS team worked with the bigger promoters in Japan, like Watanabe, Teiken and Hatanaka, the shows could, in theory, essentially feature 2, if not 4, of the knockout bouts in 1 super show, or 2 smaller yet still great shows. This would make scheduling things a little bit easier.

Imagine, if you will, a spring card featuring 4 quarter-final bouts for one tournament, a summer card with the semi-finals and then a winter show with the finals in. It would be clear, coherent, and clean. It would be simple to follow, and within 12 months we would have found out who the best fighter in a division is.

Alternatively 2 shows for the quarter finals on back to back weekends, the semi finals on the same as each other then the final.

We can't get that type of thing in the higher weights, where ego and promotional conflicts cause issues, but in the lower weights this is a possibility, and a money saving one. One that doesn't involve as many moving parts, such as booking double the venues and working on double the TV dates.

We predict that one of the lower weights, and more specifically a weight class below Bantamweight, will be run in the next WBSS. We would prefer the Light Flyweight division to the Flyweight one, but either would be great. The division won't appeal to the US audience necessarily, but given the reception the "Drama in Saitama" got it's obvious the US doesn't need to be the primary target for the WBSS. If the march ups are good enough, and the promotional work is strong enough, and the narrative is clear enough, fans, world wide, will care.

Also some of the money saved by doing the little guys could be invested in to some shoulder programming, to try and educate the wider boxing audience about the fighters involved, their stories, their styles and their ambitions. There is a whole market out there for for fans who simply haven't been exposed to the little guys and the WBSS has the power to change that.

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20 Predictions for 2020: PREDICTION number 15 - Tournaments Galore!

12/18/2019

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Prediction number 15 - Tournaments Galore!
One thing that we have seen a lot of in 2019 is boxing tournaments. We've had the WBSS, as well as Rookie tournaments, the God's Left Tournament, the Knockout Dynamite Tournament, the Hajime No Ippo tournament, The Fighter in Thailand, the Ultimate Boxing Series in the Philippines and MTK's Golden Contract tournaments. What all these tournaments have done is deliver excitement and action.

None of the bigger tournaments have been flawless, with the WBSS scheduling being one of the most frustrating things about boxing in 2019, but all of them have had great bouts, interesting match ups and been worth following. That is the key.

For too long boxing shows have been sold on the main event and little else. There hasn't been a reason to care about a whole show very often, but in tournaments, such as the Rookie of the Year, there is a reason to care about every bout. As a fan you can follow a longer narrative, a story that goes past today and into the future. A story you can emotionally invest in, especially if the fighter has had to dig deep to get to the next round.

Even in case where a tournament "goes wrong" we can still invest, with Nonito Donaire's route to the WBSS Bantamweight final giving us a story, that made Donaire seem lucky and like he didn't deserve to be in the final, but he put on one of his career best performances, showing he really did belong there. In fact watching Donaire's final in the WBSS there's a good chance he had more than enough in the tank to have gotten there on merit, even if he had had to go through a fully fit Ryan Burnett and Zolani Tete.

Tournaments, if done right, can sell not only themselves, and the fighters involved, but also a longer term boxing story. They give us a reason to care, about more than just a one off fight.

Whilst tournaments come with their own issues, such as injury, weight problems, scheduling, they do add structure to boxing and that is something the sport could do with having more off. Something rigid, something to work off of. Something that gives us something to build from.

As you can probably tell, we are fans of tournaments, and hopefully we'll see a bigger variety of them pop up, each with their own identity. The WBSS tournaments are clearly about finding the best fighters in the world in a particularly division, the Rookie of the Year tournaments are clearly to help bring novices into the sport and get them some attention. The Knockout Dynamite Tournament was a smart and unique 5 round idea with a bonus structure to encourage knockouts. The sport can also have more 1 night tournaments, like the Prize Fighter Tournaments, a tournament to find contenders for titles, like the old Strongest Korakuen tournaments, more B class tournaments, title determination tournaments to fill vacancies and so much more.

Not every tournament needs a flashy name, just a good concept, good match ups, a reason for fighters to want to win and a reason for fans to care.

We predict that we will see more tournaments in 2020, with various tournaments in Asia. A 1-night tournament at Korakuen Hall would be great, as would ESPN5 getting on board with a 1-night tournament in the Philippines. Maybe even a tournament of tournaments, with various countries all running tournaments to find their participant in a wide regional competition.

There are hundreds of options for promoters to work with, and we feel the tournament market in professional boxing is very much an untapped market, and one that copuld be cracked wide open in 2020.

(Image courtesy of boxmob.jp)

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20 Predictions for 2020: PREDICTION number 16 - WBSS Season 3 to feature a smaller weight class

20 Predictions for 2020: PREDICTION number 15 - Tournaments Galore!

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