José Sulaimán WBC Invitational Welterweight Tournament: Quarterfinals on Friday, April 27th

The bracket is as follows, with each competitor's seed #:

• Félix Manuel "Golden Kid" Díaz Guzman (1) vs. Francisco "Chia" Santana (8*)
• Chris "The Heat" van Heerden (2) vs. Festim "Timo Schwarzkopf" Kryeziu (7)
  
• Fredrick "General Okunka" Lawson (3) vs. Baishanbo "Destroyer" Nasiywula (6)
  
• Brad "Busy-Bee" Solomon (4) vs. Paddy "Pat-Man" Gallagher (5*)

* Chia Santana replaces original eighth-seeded Derrick Cuevas, who dropped out during training camp to mourn a relative passing away suddenly.

** Paddy Gallagher replaces original fifth-seeded Radzhab Butaev, who sustained an injury.

Alternates:

• Sergei Pavlovich Lubkovich vs. Karim Rasheed Mayfield

Lubkovich and Mayfield are the "replacement alternates" for Gallagher and Santana respectively. The winner of their match gets higher priority to substitute in should any of the quarter-finalists be incapacitated going forward. The loser can still be subbed in, should there be a need for a second alternate.


Those are five solid fights right there. My pick to sweep the field clean without much difficulty is Díaz, unless somebody passes the baton to give Lubkovich a chance. He's the sleeper fave.

 

No published odds yet for any of the QF bouts.

I would presume Díaz and Lawson will be installed as heavy favorites, the rest of the higher seeds as slight.

 

Everyone gets 15k just for showing up on Friday.

Winners (of the official tourney bouts, probably not Lubkovich vs. Mayfield however) get a 7.5k victory bonus. All four semifinalists gets 30k for showing up, plus a 15k victory bonus for the pair that advance into the finals. That same pair then gets 75k for showing up once more plus a potential 25k bonus if they are crowned tourney champ. That's a $167,500 total haul for the champion, which averages to a 56k per fight purse over three assignments.

Plus the bragging rights of adding three consecutive victories over top 40 world rated guys (all solid fringe contenders) in your division to boost your record, sustained international exposure, and probably a promotional deal with Evander Holyfield and high placement in the ABC rankings.

I mean, that may not glitter like WBSS moolah but for where all of these guys are in their career it seems like a pretty good deal.

 

Sadly, internet-only PPV, from what I've been able to gather.

 

Sadly, internet-only PPV, from what I've been able to gather.

 

...but wait, do not despair!!!

This content is protected

 

Yeah, he's a a decent feather-fist high-volume B-level southpaw welterweight from South Africa, has been kicking around for years on the outskirts of the world title picture. Kind of a lefty Algieri.

 

All sounds about right, but I have a little more faith in Busy-Bee and don't consider Gallagher quite as much a ringer as fellow alternates Lubkovich or Santana (though he is probably every bit as good as Mayfield is nowadays)

 

Kind of a shame we can't have additional options to include the "draw" for each (or expanded further still for the full outcomes array we usually have for poll threads, ie so-and-so either on points or by stoppage) but I can see why the cap it off at ten. Would be unwieldy otherwise from the perspective of the software designers and the admins probably wouldn't like all that extra lag bogging down the forums.