The general director of K2 Promotions Ukraine Alexander Krassyuk named the reason why WBO cruiserweight champion Alexander Usyk (12-0, 10 KOs) will not fight his quarterfinal World Boxing Super Series bout in Kiev. At the same time Krassyuk promised that one of the fights of the Ukrainian in the WBSS, if it comes to later stages, will take place in Ukraine.
"There were not only conversations, but a lot of work was done so that this fight could take place in Kiev. We had several meetings with the heads of the stadiums "Olympic", "Dynamo", talked with the Odessa stadium "Chernomorets". On September 9, we planned to hold this event in Kiev. The organizers of the World Series of Boxing is the Swiss company, and, since this battle will be their debut, they are very concerned about this fight. Initially, they were more positive about Kiev, because Usyk here collects large arenas and we thought that we could easily assemble 20-25 or maybe 30 thousand fans,” Krassyuk said.
“For the start and presentation of the project, this would be a very, very positive story. But when they rested on economic calculations, it became clear that our 30 thousand and Berlin's 5 thousand in relation to the dollar or euro, plus or minus are the same. The scale here is much larger, but the threshold of problems that needed to be overcome here is higher, and there was very little time - in early August the decision was not made still. It is necessary to organize such an event in Ukraine, in the format that is supposed, and for this all equipment, sound and light, must be brought from Europe, and this is a couple of dozen trucks. To bring all this to Ukraine it is necessary to conduct a huge amount of paper, documentary work and they were afraid to risk the time. Therefore it was decided that the battle will take place on September 9 in Europe because there are no borders to cross, customs clearance is also not necessary, there is no currency difference, there is a European organization that moves”.
“But in the case of a successful fight Alexander unequivocally will take one of the fights in Ukraine. It is important to clarify what the format of the Super Series is. Here the title fight is included in the tournament framework. Usyk will make a defense of his WBO belt. Plus there will be a slight distortion of the rules as the fourth judge, who, in case of a draw, will give preference to one of the boxers. The rules of the World Boxing Super Series stipulate that the fight cannot end in a draw,” Krassyuk added.
