Riyadh Season WBC Boxing Grand Prix - Tournament Details, Preview, Round By Round & Results!

Looking ahead:

The fourth stage of the Grand Prix will be in mid-October (following the pattern of every previous stage taking place in the middle of an even-numbered month: April, June, August ...exact date TBA).

Here are the current brackets:

FEATHERWEIGHT

• Yoni Diego Lorenzo Sebastian "Titi" Valverdé López (France, 15-0) vs. Muhamet "The Robot" Qamili (Italy, 16-0)

• Bekizizwe "Dr. Sleep" Maitse (South Africa, 8-1) vs. Brandon "Dog" Mejia Mosqueda (Mexico, 10-0)

SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT

• Danylo Alexandrovich Lozan (Ukraine, 15-0) vs. Mujibillo Dilmurodjon Ogli Tursunov (Uzbekistan, 8-0)

• Ntethelelo Eric Nkosi (South Africa, 10-2) vs. Carlos Alfonso Utria López (Colombia, 12-0)

MIDDLEWEIGHT

• Derek "Slick" Pomerleau (Canada, 14-0) vs. Jean Carlos Sinisterra Palacios (Colombia, 13-1)

• Dylan "The Beaudesert Storm" Biggs (Australia, 16-1) vs. Lancelot "The Last Knight" Proton de la Chapelle (France, 18-1-1)

HEAVYWEIGHT

• Keaton Gomes (South Africa, 13-3) vs. Ahmed "Bosnian Steel" Krnjić (Bosnia & Herzegovina, 6-0)

• Kevin Christopher Ramírez (Argentina, 11-0-1) vs. Dante Darnell Stone (USA, 21-1)

IB's picks:

Valverdé SD Qamili (Enhanced Scoring in play)
Mosqueda KO Maitse

Lozan UD Tursunov
Utría UD Nkosi

Sinisterra TKO Pomerleau
Biggs UD Proton de la Chapelle

Krnjić TKO Gomes
Ramírez UD Stone

 

@CST80 now that you've had a taste - what do you think about including the semis as picks in kirk's league in October?

On one hand yeah, it's eight fights in one day, and they could well end up being six-rounders again (no word yet on length, but the first three stages were all 6... I'm guessing they'll either keep it uniform until the finals, or maybe bump up to 8-rounders for the semis and 10 for the finals) - but honestly, anybody that's left in the field now is on a hot streak of beating at least three under-26-yo prospects in a row. Plus that means there's a good amount of footage on everyone for people to research picks on.

 

Nations table update:

1. South Africa - 3 boxers
   
   
2. France - 2 boxers
   Colombia - 2 boxers
   
   
3. USA - 1 boxer
   Mexico - 1 boxer
   Italy - 1 boxer
   Uzbekistan - 1 boxer
   Ukraine - 1 boxer
   Canada - 1 boxer
   Bosnia & Herzegovina - 1 boxer
   Argentina - 1 boxer
   Australia - 1 boxer

Quite a shakeup. Ukraine and USA were tied for first place heading into the quarters, now tied for last!

South Africa taking home three of the four trophies would be insane.

 

Naturally! (you know how much I love a good breakdown )

Ranked from most to least league-worthy, IMO:

1. Bekizizwe "Dr. Sleep" Maitse vs. vs. Brandon "Dog" Mejia Mosqueda (FW)
   
   So, you watched/scored BMM's quarterfinal match - and like me, I'm sure you became an instant fan. He's going places. And his opponent's nickname should appeal to you - it's the title of one of your favorite movies of the last decade. And honestly, Maitse is probably p4p the best of the three South Africans remaining in the field. He's pretty good, but he'll crumble under that power and intensity from BMM.
   
   
2. Keaton Gomes vs. Ahmed "Bosnian Steel" Krnjić (HW)
   
   This is going to be a HW war, that almost certainly won't last the full six. Gomes packs the bigger punch and is on a nice run of form - but he's also vulnerable, with a KO loss to Shaun Potgieter (that guy Justin Huni wrecked in January). Krnjić is probably a lot of people's favorite of the remaining heavyweights but as exciting as he is, he is plenty flawed. I could see Gomes catching him with something big in the semis, or K-Ram schooling him in the finals.
   
   
3. Dylan "The Beaudesert Storm" Biggs vs. Lancelot "The Last Knight" Proton de la Chapelle (MW)
   
   LPDLC sort of emerged from total obscurity outside France (where he holds two domestic titles) before the Grand Prix, and scored a major upset in the Round of 16. He did, FWIW, post two amateur victories over Tony Yoka, so he was good in the amateurs - but his early pro loss was to a Georgian complete scrub with a 3-2-1 record - by stoppage. So chin's a concern. Biggs is an excellent prospect and might just be top 5 among under-30-yo Aussies. He ought to savage the still very amateur-styled LPDLC, and it will be glorious.
   
   
4. Derek "Slick" Pomerleau vs. Jean Carlos Sinisterra Palacios (MW)
   
   Honestly both looked very underwhelming in their quarterfinals until kayoing their opponents, but there's a lot of belief in both, and against each other in the semis it'll be a much more aesthetic stylistic match-up and should be a firefight where somebody ends up getting KTFO.
   
   
5. Kevin Christopher Ramírez vs. Dante Darnell Stone (HW)
   
   K-Ram impressed me yesterday in his defeat of Polish banger Piotr Łącz (who came in off a huge upset victory over Marko Milun in the RO16). He's also kind of a sentimental favorite because of Barak's naysaying ass claiming that "Argentinians can't make it at HW". DDS is the last remaining hope for Team USA - which is kind of a glum thought, because he's kind of a fat lazy POS. He's just lucky that his last opponent, Baallla (who got reinserted after losing to Lazizbek Mullojonov in a previous stage, when Mullojonov peed dirty and got axed) is an even fatter & lazier POS. Stone can box a bit, though - and has the most pro experience of anybody in the field.
   
   
6. Ntethelelo Eric Nkosi vs. Carlos Alfonso Utria López (140lbs)
   
   Decent fight, but kind of middle of the road. Winner is probably established as being a "real" prospect going forward, but still too soon to say they'll be a contender.
   
   
7. Yoni Diego Lorenzo Sebastian "Titi" Valverdé López vs. Muhamet "The Robot" Qamili (FW)
   
   This one is basically going to be an old school ESPN2 FNF type of barnburner. Entertaining but not an especially high skill level. Both have very average power and solid chins, so they're just going to be clanging away for six rounds. Skill edge to Valverdé, toughness and heavy-handedness to Qamili.
   
   
8. Danylo Alexandrovich Lozan vs. Mujibillo Dilmurodjon Ogli Tursunov (140lbs)
   
   Really not excited for this one. Lozan is a skilled Ukrainian southpaw but he's nothing all that special, and he's most likely going to cleanly outbox the overrated pressure-fighting midget Tursunov (who barely squeaked by Mosqueda's lesser teammate Cabrera in the semis) to a boring shutout decision.

So the super lightweight matches are the most expendable...and HW & MW all look good, and the very best is at featherweight (but then, so is the second-worst - but even that one is going to be highly entertaining)

Gun to my head, if you wanted to make it fair and whittle it down to a single match representing each division, in terms of the most meaningful and important in the long-term...

HW - Gomes vs. Krnjić (even though I personally like K-Ram better than either of them.
MW - Biggs vs. Proton de la Chapelle
140lbs - Nkosi vs. Utría
FW - Maitse vs. Mosqueda

 

Oh man... and then in December in the finals, assuming my picks are correct, we'll get:

Valverdé vs. Mosqueda at FW

Lozan vs. Utría at 140lbs

Sinisterra vs. Biggs at MW

Krnjić vs. Ramírez at HW

Those are four AWESOME fights.

 

Ghanaian puncher Shakul Samed (10-1, 9 kayos ...younger brother of Bastie Samir) is on standby as an alternate at middleweight in the semis and will compete if anybody has to withdraw due to injury.

 

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Should be more details soon.

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We have a date announcement!

Semifinals will be October 19th.

Exact venue still TBA, but it will be in Riyadh (either the BLVD City Global Theater, Cool Arena, or Kingdom Arena) - so plan on an exciting Sunday afternoon/evening for those of us on the American east coast.

 

https://boxrec.com/en/event/931326