Usyk-Gassiev heads to Moscow?

Secretary-General of the Boxing Federation of Russia Umar Kremlev expects that Moscow will host the cruiserweight final of World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) between Russian Murat Gassiev and Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk. As for now the final battle is scheduled for May 11 in Saudi Arabia.

- You are making a lot of efforts to bring the finals of WBSS to Moscow. What is the main reason for this?

"My duty as the head of the Russian Boxing Federation is to bring the biggest boxing events to Russia," said Kremlev. "And I think that we coped well with the February semi-final of the Super Series in Sochi. I think that Moscow will be an excellent venue for the grandiose boxing event. Our task is to bring to Russia as many world-class fights as possible, even if there are no Russian boxers among the participants. Our country is already one of the leading in the world of boxing, but we want to make it the country number one. And for this we need big boxing events here in Russia.

- In the final Murat Gassiev will meet Alexander Usyk - the Russian vs the Ukrainian.

- Russians and Ukrainians are fraternal peoples, so, of course, such a fight will be very interesting. For us there is no politics in this confrontation, it is a sport and nothing more. Of course, if Usyk was not an enemy of Gassiev, this fight would be even more interesting, since we do not particularly like fighting with the fraternal people, and we would still be just as interested in hosting the finals in Moscow.

- Do not you think that this can give some unfair advantage to Gassiev in terms of the home arena and the favor of judging?

- The fight have all four world champion belts at stake - WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF versions, as well as for the Mohammed Ali Trophy, which means that no one will even dare to judge objectively. In addition, all four world organizations will control this duel. This is an international event at which everyone will see at what high level we are able to hold events of a global scale. We are interested in holding the semi-finals of the next season in Russia in conjunction with the World Boxing Super Series. And including the final, regardless of whether it will be a representative of our country or not. In the near future there will be many more world-class fights in Russia!