World Boxing Super Series tournament promises jolt to sport with $50M in prize money - USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Richard Schaefer and Kalle Sauerland couldn’t wipe the wry smiles from their faces.

The promoters, clad in suits, strolled around a ballroom Thursday at the plush Pierre hotel on the Upper East Side, with a gold, torch-shaped trophy sitting on a black-curtained table as the centerpiece.

That prize, dubbed the Muhammad Ali trophy, will be the brass ring fighters — hopefully elite ones — will vie for come fall.

With $50 million in purse money backing the project each season, Schaefer and Sauerland laid out their grand plans for a new global tournament — the World Boxing Super Series — they hope will provide a jolt to the sport and a shift for the traditional boxing model of one-off fights.

“With that kind of money, you can certainly attract top-level talent, pretty much in any weight class you can think of, with maybe the exception of one or two fighters. So the money is there,” said Schaefer, the former Golden Boy Promotions executive who promoted some of the sports biggest fights, like Floyd Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez.

“I think what is there is well is the regularity of how somebody can fight. Fighters want to stay active. They want to know that there’s one fight leading into another fighter and another fight. … So I think it’s extremely appealing to the fighters.”

The single-elimination tournament will kick off in September, with two separate brackets featuring different weight classes that have yet to be determined.

There will be 16 boxers in all — eight per weight division — fighting for prize money that Schaefer estimated could total $10 million when you total purses from the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, plus prize money per round for advancing.

There’s a pot of $25 million per weight class, which should be plenty to attract the sport’s elite, as Schaefer mentioned. A live, televised draft will be held in June, where the four top-seeded boxers will select their quarterfinal opponents at a gala.

The quarterfinals will take place in September, with the semifinals ticketed for January and February and the two finals set for May 2018. There will be 14 fight nights in all for Season 1, with seven taking place at 11 p.m. ET in the U.S., and the others at 11 p.m. central time in Europe.

Schaefer and Sauerland already have sold the television rights for three seasons to an agency — excluding rights in the U.S. and Scandinavia — who will then find networks to telecast the WBSS.

Showtime Sports head honcho Stephen Espinoza said he has the framework of a deal in place to televise the tourney in America, but that nothing is finalized yet.

“I can look at my calendar and say here are four dates in September and October that I know are written in stone,” Espinoza said. “I know what they cost, I know when they’re going to be,  I know it’s not going to move. That’s a much easier way to program schedule and market.”

Sauerland, one of the biggest promoters in Europe, was prominently involved with the last major boxing tournament — Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic that took place from 2009 to ’11 — and says his experience will help them avoid some of the pitfalls of organizing such a big project (he promoted Mikkell Kessler and Arthur Abraham, two fighters who participated).

He admits the Super Six dragged on too long, and says he’s now well-prepared to foresee potential quagmires he experienced, like fighters refusing to visit the hometowns of their opponents.

There also were withdrawals then, and the German says there will be reserve fighters, ready to go at a moment’s notice, in case of injury.

The World Boxing Super Series is Sauerland’s brainchild, and he’s confident the tourney will revolutionize boxing after three years of research and planning.

“There’s been no expense spared,” said Sauerland, who promised grand presentation, along with a corresponding score, video packages and shoulder programming to give each event a big-fight feel. ” … The message is, it’s prizefighting. The winner takes more than the loser. And that is a sport — whatever sport it is — always adds an edge.”

The next big thing is always just around the corner in boxing, and more often than not, it’s a disappointment.

But Schaefer and Sauerland have been successful before, and they’re not afraid to try something innovative.

They’re daring to be different, and they have the money — and plan — to feel confident as the new venture rounds into form.

No matter the sport, everyone loves a tournament. Now it’s up to Schaefer and Sauerland to attract the sport’s best practitioners to join the World Boxing Super Series and make the tourney truly compelling.

Photo of Schaefer, second from left, and Sauerland, second from right, by Simon Lewis

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