Lausanne, Switzerland, October 14th 2010: Four Olympians to Represent Memphis in the Upcoming WSB Season.
The city of Memphis has been selected as one of three U.S. cities to host a franchise for the World Series of Boxing (WSB), a revolutionary new boxing concept created by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). Memphis is one of 12 international cities to be named a WSB Franchise host and joins Miami, Los Angeles, and Mexico City in the Americas conference.
“The announcement of Memphis as the last of the twelve WSB franchise cities is a milestone for the World Series of Boxing. We now have twelve teams preparing for the first matches of the season, which will start in just over a month,” WSB Chairman and AIBA President, Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu said. “This new format of boxing competition will bring added excitement to the sport, making the city of Memphis part of a truly unique competition.”
The Memphis area enjoys an outstanding sports history and WSB Americas is thrilled to bring a global sports franchise to the city. “We are extremely excited to be announcing that Memphis will be joining Miami, Los Angeles, and Mexico City in the WSB Americas Conference,” said Eric Parthen, Managing Director of WSB Americas. “Memphis has a proud tradition of both amateur and professional boxing and it is that tradition that brought us to this great city. The people of Memphis appreciate world-class boxing and we are confident they’ll come out to cheer on the skill and accomplishments of the WSB athletes.”
The Memphis franchise boasts outstanding international experience from the front office through the athlete roster with Olympic leadership at every level. 2008 Olympic Team Manager Joe Smith will serve as the General Manager of the Memphis squad, and has already begun preparing for the upcoming season.
“I look forward to working with this tremendous team of athletes and coaches to create an outstanding sports franchise for Memphis,” General Manager Joe Smith said. “The World Series of Boxing is an exciting new boxing concept that will give this squad a chance to represent Memphis on a global stage.”
2004 Olympic Coach Anthony Bradley has signed on as the team’s Head Coach and he will work closely with his talented group of assistant coaches, which includes 1976 Olympic silver medalist Charles Mooney, to prepare for the upcoming season.
The Memphis squad’s athlete roster boasts a strong mix of U.S. and international athletes with four Olympians, from four different nations on the team. They will be led by 2008 U.S. Featherweight Olympian Raynell Williams (Cleveland, Ohio), who is vying to be only the third U.S. athlete to compete in two Olympic Games. Williams is joined on the roster by three international Olympians, including 2004 Bulgarian Olympian and 2009 Bantamweight World Champion Detelin Dalakliev, 2008 Mongolian Olympian Munkh -Erdene Uranchimeg, and 2008 Hungarian Olympian Imre Szello.
Memphis’ own hometown heavyweight Javonta Charles will enjoy a home ring advantage as he vies for WSB victories during the upcoming season. In addition, 2009 National Champions Terrell Gausha (Cleveland, Ohio) and Robert Brant (Oakdale, Minn.) look forward to representing their adopted hometown in WSB action. 2008 National Golden Gloves champion Ernesto Garza III (Saginaw, Mich.), Germany’s Ronny Bebik, two-time National PAL bronze medalist Christopher Jones (Dallas, Texas), 2008 U.S. Championships bronze medalist Charles Watson (Johnson City, Tenn.), 2009 USA Boxing National Championships bronze medalist Tony Mack (Plano, Texas), and heavyweight Angelo Buchanan (Milwaukee, Wis.) complete the current Memphis roster.
Former National Champion Julius Fogle and Memphis’ own Pete Mitchell will join Bradley and Mooney on the coaching staff. All of the U.S. boxers and coaches have already relocated to Memphis to begin preparing for the season and the international athletes are scheduled to arrive in the coming weeks.
The team will enjoy their home opener on Saturday, November 27, and full ticket information will be released shortly.
About the WSB
Ushering in a new era in boxing, the World Series of Boxing is a new global boxing series that is an initiative of AIBA, the International Boxing Association, under the leadership of its president Dr. C.K. Wu. The World Series of Boxing will bring together the best of the amateur and professional boxing worlds. Not only will it be the first truly global professional-style boxing tournament, it will also allow all participants to retain their eligibility to participate in the Olympic Games.
The WSB will comprise 12 city-based Franchise teams spread across three regional conferences: Asia, the Americas and Europe. During the regular season (November 2010 to March 2011), teams in each conference will compete against each other over two home and two away legs (a total of 12 matches per team).
Boxing squads will consist of between 10 and 20 boxers, with a cap on the maximum number of national boxers and a requirement to field between 3 and 6 non-national boxers according to squad size.
The top team from each conference, plus the best second-placed team, will then go through to the play-off series to compete for a place in the team championship final in Macau, China. Separate individual championships will also be held for the best boxers in each of the five weight divisions (54kg, 61kg, 73kg, 85kg, and 91+ kg).
The four Asian franchises are: Astana (Kazakhstan), Baku (Azerbaijan), Beijing (China) and Delhi (India). The four European franchises are: Paris (France), Milan (Italy), Moscow (Russia), Istanbul (Turkey).
For the American conference the franchises will be operated by independent franchise holders under the overall control of WSB Americas, a wholly owned subsidiary of World Series Boxing SA. WSB Americas includes the following cities: Los Angeles, Miami, Memphis and Mexico City.
The complete team lists for all 12 franchise teams and the detailed competition schedule are now available on the WSB website at www.worldseriesboxing.com