The Group Draw for the upcoming 5th Season of the World Series of Boxing took place in Istanbul, Turkey on July 16, Tengrinews reports citing Vesti.kz.
The Group Draw for the upcoming 5th Season of the World Series of Boxing took place in Istanbul, Turkey on July 16, Tengrinews reports citing Vesti.kz.
Kazakhstani boxing team Astana Arlans will be fighting for the championship title in Group B along with Argentina Condors (Argentina), Venezuela (Venezuela), USA KnocKouts (USA), Italia Thunder (Italy), Azerbaijan Baku Fires (Azerbaijan), Poland Hussars (Poland), and one more team that will be announced later.
The 5th season promises to be interesting not only because new teams have joined the WSB, but also because boxers will be competing for a chance to represent their countries at the Rio Olympic Games.
The Head Coach of the Kazakh Wolves Sergei Korchinsky said that the team needed a new strategy for the season. “What is more important: the team victory or a chance to go to the Olympics? There might be certain conflicts of interests. We have some issues concerning our mercenaries because we have to guarantee them a good number of fights so that they can have a chance to get their tickets to the Olympics. For example we have two light heavyweight mercenaries Sep and Rouzbakhani. Even if we put them forward in turns, it will not be a 100% guarantee that each of them will go up in their individual rankings,” Korchinsky told Sports.kz.
Bolat Mankenov, director of the Kazakhstani boxing club, said that the management of the team would have to complete the plan for the upcoming season by August 1. He added that this season would be physically challenging for the Arlan boxers due to travelling to North and South Americas. Mankenov added that if the Cuban team agreed then The Match of the Champions between the Astana Arlans (the Champions of the 3rd season) and Cuba Domadores (the Champions of the 4th season) would take place in Astana in September 2014.
The Astana Arlans lost to the Baku Fires in the semifinals of the 4th season. Then the Azeri team lost to the Cuba Domadores in the finals of the 4th season.
The 5th season of WSB starts on January 8, 2015.
By Gyuzel Kamalova