WBSS EXCLUSIVE
Kalle Sauerland responds to reports of tournament turmoil
JUST as a football team tends to echo, on the pitch, the style and personality of their manager, the same can be said for the World Boxing Super Series [WBSS] and Kalle Sauerland, its fearless leader.
Last year, embodying the spirit of the tournament, Sauerland was as popular a figure as anyone in the sport and everything everybody wanted from a boxing promoter. He was charismatic and fun; straight-talking and accessible. He was, much like the WBSS itself, a breath of fresh air, an anomaly in a room of trite ideas and soundbites.
For the best part of 12 months, in fact, Sauerland and the WBSS were two of the most exciting things in boxing. Hovering between crazy and genius, riding that fine line to within an inch of its life, it all somehow worked: Sauerland as The Promoter Boxing Needed and the WBSS as The Tournament Boxing Needed. In the case of both, you wondered when the bandwagon would derail, but, until the point of impact, it was difficult to avert your eyes, much less alight. They were captivating – the tournament and its frontman.
Best of all, despite our fears – fears commonplace with all boxing
SAUERLAND WAS, MUCH LIKE THE WBSS ITSELF, A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
tournaments – the first season of the WBSS was a roaring success. It created a bona fide star in Oleksandr Usyk, the cruiserweight tournament winner, and a potential future star in Callum Smith, the victor at super-middleweight. It delivered everything it promised and then some. We stood and applauded, we demanded more, and we wondered why boxing couldn’t always be like this.
Frankly, had the WBSS bowed out as the crowd yelled for an encore, it would have gone down as one of the great boxing creations of the modern era. Like a rock star cut short in their prime, its legacy
would have been embellished over time and we would have yearned for the day the WBSS came back to produce more of the same.
But, of course, rather than leave, the WBSS returned for season two, this time at bantamweight and super-lightweight, as well as a class reunion at cruiserweight, and the world waited with bated breath for it all to go wrong. Tournaments, after all, will invariably go wrong, so says the sport’s history, and the nature of boxing has a way of making sure of it. Come back for seconds and there is a danger of the sophomore slump and the undoing of good work. It’s the risk you run. Will season one live up to the standards set by season one? Will rival promoters now attempt to scupper rather than aid its progress? Will the organisers behind it get complacent or lose interest?
To those on the periphery, these are very real concerns, intensified whenever we hear a rumour about a boxer being
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unhappy, a bout getting pushed back, or simply feel the tournament won’t catch fire the way its predecessor did. Some worries are pertinent; others amount to scaremongering.
If there’s one man able to differentiate truth from fiction, though, it’s Kalle Sauerland, the Chief Boxing Officer of tournament organiser Comosa AG and someone whose enthusiasm for the project is unabating. Refreshingly, Sauerland had no problem doing just that when Boxing News pursued answers to some of the questions season two has raised since its inception last summer.
Looking back, how pleased are you with how season one unfolded?
From the outside looking in, it probably seemed smooth sailing, but you should have had a camera on me. I’m not a big fan of lauding prizes but we picked up ‘Fight of the Year’, ‘Fighter of the Year’, ‘Knockout of the Year’ and ‘Promoter of the Year’. We did pretty well.
But, at the end of the day, the fact it went down so well was credit to the fighters we selected. The tournaments had a real feeling of the best facing the best and what the tournament set out to do was establish itself as the Champions League of boxing. We wanted the best fighters to fight each other and we hoped we would end both tournaments with one clear division ruler. We obviously achieved that at cruiserweight with [Oleksandr] Usyk winning all four belts, but I think even at super-middleweight Callum Smith established himself as arguably the number one in the division despite only having one belt to his name. He is certainly the man to beat at that weight right now.
All in all, it was four years’ worth of planning and it worked out sensationally in the end. The finals, despite all the worries about going to Jeddah [Saudi Arabia], both turned out good. The fights themselves were good and the atmospheres, too. At the end of the day, the tournament travels and that was always the intention from the start. It will continue to do so.
What are the main difficulties an organiser must overcome when staging a boxing tournament?
Season one, believe it not, had a huge amount of difficulties and challenges we had to overcome. Usyk went to Russia while there was a war formally declared between the two countries [Ukraine and Russia], and there were a lot of behind the scenes antics there. We had two key injuries to [George] Groves and Usyk and they were, at the time, the two men to beat in the tournament. They were the number one seeds and suddenly injured. We had to have a rethink about where and when the finals were taking place.
I think we battled through that very, very well and we ended up with two outstanding finals and created some ‘Fight of the Year’ candidates. As a promoter, that’s what you set out to do. Not only that, we went to so many different countries and hopefully delivered boxing a whole new spectrum of fans.
But, of course, there were problems along the way. Every day it seemed there was a new problem. That’s not just the case with tournament boxing, either. It’s boxing, full stop. It’s the boxing beast. It’s something that goes on. Sometimes the problems are made public and they’re out in the open; other times they’re happening behind closed doors and you’ll never know about it.
I was born into a boxing family and have been around the fight game since I was in Pampers. I’ve been involved as a promoter for 20 years now. I know what it takes to solve the problems and sometimes you just have to battle on. It’s a daily challenge and that’s what we’re there to do. It’s not just about putting fights on.
If you look at what Eddie [Hearn] and Frank [Warren] have done in the UK in the last 12 months, you can’t help being impressed. I think they’ve both done fantastic jobs. But boxing promotion is
‘EVERY DAY IT SEEMED LIKE THERE WAS A NEW PROBLEM’
about solving problems, ultimately, and they will no doubt have had their share of problems just as we will have ours. By the time you sit there and watch the main event, you might think the job is over and you can relax, but that’s not the case. You’re worrying about the next problem. The problem-solving is a 24/7 job.
Due to the success of season one, is there a danger the bar has been set unrealistically high and that any problems encountered during season two will be magnified as a result?
Let’s talk openly here. The reason we’re clearly changing the schedule will become apparent in the next six to eight weeks. It’s a big part of the concept moving forward for season three. The timelines have changed but we’ve tried to keep it as close as we can to the first season, so the finals still take place at the same time they did in the first season, which was the end of September.
But we had an issue last year that I’ll be very open about. We sold our global rights to a company called MP & Silva, who marketed Serie A, La Liga and Roland Garros tennis, and they went into insolvency at the end of last year. This created a cashflow issue, which, given the size of the cashflow issue, was very quickly solved by our shareholders who once again stood up for the tournament they believe in and have seen do so well. They did a fantastic job to turn that situation around and give the company financial security moving forward.
Were some of the WBSS boxers not paid on time as a result of this cashflow problem?
Some fighters received their winners’ bonuses later due to the issues at the end of last year, but it was a matter of weeks. Contrary to some of the rubbish I read, with unnamed sources, all boxers have been paid.
Will one of the season two finals again have to take place in Saudi Arabia [following Callum Smith vs. George Groves in season one]?
No, not at all. We have great partners in Saudi Arabia, but we also held a very successful final in front of 24,000 people in Moscow, Russia.
The tournament will continue to travel. A week after the season one final in Jeddah, for example, we were doing our first event of season two in Yokohama, Japan. We also had our first attack on the USA with our partners DAZN, which was very successful. They were great events and we were very happy to be promoting in America for those quarterfinals.
In fact, if you look at the season two quarter-finals as a whole, they were a lot more competitive than the season one quarter-finals. [Yunier] Dorticos, for instance, won in a couple of rounds in season one [against Dmitry Kudryashov], but then had a war with [Mateusz] Masternak in the quarter-final of the second season.
We now look forward to semi-finals that arguably match those of last year and will hopefully give us a few Champions League kind of moments. We’re doing some double-headers as well, which is a real treat for boxing fans. You’re certainly getting value for money with the World Boxing Super Series and we’re taking it all over the world again.
How difficult is it keeping the fighters and their managers happy during this process?
Anyone who has been around boxing for any amount of time knows there are plenty of egos in this business. But you have to put things in perspective. What I mean by that is this: when you’re putting together a big fight, you have to deal with the egos of the fighter, the trainer, the manager and their promoter. Now, in our case, times that problem by 12. I haven’t just got two fighters, I’ve got 24 we have to look after. I’ve already increased the numbers by going from two tournaments to three [for season two], so we’ve really got 24 camps we’re having to deal with. It’s never just the case of dealing with a boxer. There is a whole team behind them.
‘WE HAD AN ISSUE LAST YEAR THAT I WILL BE VERY OPEN ABOUT’
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Even beyond those directly involved, you’ll have the girlfriend, the wife and other family members. To cope with all that, we have a great team and it’s a hell of a team effort. But, ultimately, there are going to be people disappointed by certain things during the process of the tournament. They might be disappointed if they have to travel to a certain country for a fight. They might be disappointed for a whole host of reasons. If it’s not this, it’s something else. Sometimes these problems are made public, but, at the end of the day, we can only continue doing what we are doing. We know what we have done so far, and we believe we are in a great position now with the semi-final line-up. Is it tough to manage 24 teams? I’d be lying if I said it was a walk in the park.
Let’s briefly touch on the situation involving super-lightweights Ivan Baranchyk and Josh Taylor. [Baranchyk’s manager reportedly threatened to pull his fighter out of the tournament on January 30 due to frustrations regarding scheduling and a late bonus payment.] Is that any closer to being resolved?
There is a positive dialogue with his manager and there is a fully-binding contract for the fight. Of course, to travel to Scotland is an issue but in the end I think they understand the logistics of the WBSS. Usyk won the Ali Trophy by boxing three times on enemy territory and entered the tournament as world and Olympic champion.
Are you taking the WBSS concept one season at a time or do you have a sustainable long-term plan for it?
My role is very simple. I look after the boxing part of it. Our partners are very much in control of the commercial side of it and they have a very sustainable long-term commercial model. The main shareholders are a major entertainment company and one of the biggest broadcasting corporations in Europe: Highlight Entertainment and Modern Times Group. They have experience in managing major sporting events. Those are their properties.
They obviously have a completely different take on how to create value from boxing, and this is very much brandorientated, obviously. That’s why we have such a big production. In fact, if you look at certain big broadcasters you will see that we’re not only the leaders in terms of production right now but that a lot of the production on other boxing shows has been adapted to mimic what we are doing. What I have to do is deal with weight classes and the fighters in those weight classes and propose fights to the board. That doesn’t stop. It’s an ongoing process. But this is not the Kalle Sauerland project and never has been. I speak to all the promoters and ask for their input
‘IT’S IN THEIR INTEREST FOR THE WBSS TO BE A SUCCESS’
and feedback and any suggestions about what weight classes they think might work best. It’s in their interests as well for the tournament to continue and be a success. Everyone benefits from the tournament – from the fans through to the fighters and promoters.
How do you react when there are rumours of unrest being made public?
I do think we have seen more negativity and a few more knives come out [during season two]. It’s also clear that in the US it’s a much harder-fought market than it was during the first year. Some of the sums that are in play in the US now make that the case, and some of the players, new and old, will always have the knives out for, let’s say, the other side. But, come on, that’s boxing. I’m not going to lose any sleep over that.
At the same time, when they pull their knives out, it’s worth remembering you should never bring a knife to a gunfight. People need to realise we’re not some sleeping giant. We’re watching every move and we know what we’re doing. We are more than prepared to fight tooth and nail for what we want.
There are always rumours and scaremongering. It’s boxing. It was the same in season one. I remember reading stories that said [Murat] Gassiev was going to pull out of the [cruiserweight] final and these rumours were going around while he was doing a press conference. Those are just things you have to manage. You can’t let them throw you out of your walking pattern.
You’ve always got to look where the rumours are coming from and you’ve got to check who has been quoted. I don’t see too many fighter quotes out there when these problems are mentioned.
I’m not blaming anyone. Managers have to do their job for their fighters. It’s the same with other promoters working with other networks. They have to do their job. They have to justify why they’re not producing events as good as the WBSS. Those knives will always come out in that sort of situation and that’s fair enough. Everyone does their work in a different way and I don’t blame a manager or a promoter who chooses not to work with us. That’s cool. They have to make it work for themselves and good luck to them.
Are you happy with season two’s progress?
With the calendar that has already been announced, and the fights that are about to be announced, we’re very excited to now start promoting these events. They are all ‘Fight of the Year’ contenders and, once again, that’s what we’re all about.
When you are comprising your list of top 10 ‘Fight of the Year’ contenders, we want a World Boxing Super Series fight to fill every spot.
‘YOU’VE GOT TO LOOK AT WHERE THE RUMOURS ARE COMING FROM’