Promoter Kalle Sauerland says fight fans will have a clear indication of what he’s been building by September or October.
Sauerland and his family boxing company linked up with giant sport’s agency Wasserman earlier in the year, he has also announced the new season of the World Boxing Super Series and a partnership with social media magnate KSI.
All ventures are separate but Sauerland is yet to reveal his hand, certainly in the UK, about where his fighters will land in terms of TV coverage.
“We have the whole puzzle but we’re only showing parts of it,” he said. “We are working on bits. It’s no secret that we’re going to do something in the UK, we are just deciding what partner to go with broadcasting-wise. We are doing what we’ve done in Germany, we are not trying to sign 50 fighters, we’re going to do it the way we’ve done it with two or three main fighters, we are assembling a group of youngsters and we’ll look at the Olympians and there might be some who have headlined shows joining. I’d say September, October you’ll see the full starting picture from a UK perspective.”
Wasserman have announced several signings recently, including Linus Udolfia, Vincent Feigenbutz and Brad Pauls and they have the world-rated duo of Chris Eubank Jr and Filip Hrgovic moving into contention for big fights.
“We will start again in Germany when we’re allowed to [when Covid restrictions are lifted], hopefully that will be at the end of August, we will do Scandinavia and merge that with the Baltics where we have [Mairis] Briedis and then there’s Hrgovic and there’s the totally separate thing with KSI, which is unrelated to the other business,” Kalle added.
Fight fans will be most interested by the Wasserman Boxing announcement while the KSI venture could be more of an attraction-based proposition, although that’s where Sauerland comes into it, with his boxing know-how.
“We are in there with him [KSI], so it’s a joint venture for him, us and his manager,” detailed Sauerland. “It’s going to function totally separate to the normal Wasserman Boxing and my role in the World Boxing Super Series. Currently I don’t see any crossovers there.”
Sauerland isn’t a fan of the boxing exhibitions that we’ve seen to date, admitting they’re “not for him”, and he’s hoping their link-up will be more boxing-based than what we have seen from several of the big nights that have been born out of curiosity rather than sporting desire.
That said, Sauerland believes KSI has a legitimate passion for the sport.
“The kid lives the life of a fighter, of course he has a very busy schedule as well but he gets his training in every day,” said Kalle. “It’s his lifestyle and you’d think he was out in clubs every night [while not in Covid] and it’s one bird after another but it’s not. He lives like a fighter… nutrition… he trains in a gym with a lot of big UK MMA guys as well and he trains like any other novice. Yes, he also has a different life on top of it but let’s face it, most boxers go and work a 9-5 every day, you can’t discriminate against him because he’s successful on YouTube.”
The Sauerlands have been approached by an A-list singer about having a fight, but that singer soon realized the idea and the execution were two different things and he changed his mind.
At the other end of the spectrum, where the best fight the best, Sauerland has announced that the next WBSS will be the women’s super-featherweights, and while contractually he might be restricted with who is in the final field, it hasn’t stopped Mikaela Mayer [Top Rank] or Maiva Hamadouche [Brahim Asloum] throwing their hats in to the ring via social media.
“We are just delighted that we’re back,” Sauerland continued. “We’ve always wanted to do one with the women.”
And there won’t be a second weight class announced just yet, not until the world starts to open up a little more post-pandemic. Sauerland said it’s hard enough setting one up with everything that’s going on now, let alone juggling a second group.
“Given the state of the world outside of boxing it would be crazy,” he said, explaining that he also wanted the women to “stand out” after delivering, Sauerland added, three of the 10 best fights during the pandemic.
For now, much of Sauerland’s work is behind the scenes, arranging output deals for his various outputs.
“We have had some very positive talks with Sky,” he went on. “You must remember that Wasserman Boxing and the World Boxing Super Series are two different products and two totally different companies, so they don’t come together, they’re very separate. But in terms of Wasserman Boxing, we’re talking to all parties at present and Sky is a fantastic platform and we’ve had some very good discussions but there are also others who are pushing.”
Wasserman Boxing will continue signing fighters, too, and they aren’t looking at anyone who might not make it at least to European level.
Then, there’s Eubank, who is now being trained by the legendary Roy Jones Jr.
What’s next for the Brighton man?
They are due to meet next week and the options are a warm-up fight before a world title fight later this year or going straight in to a big one. There have been discussions with “two or three” world champions.
“The question is what him and Roy want to do from a sporting perspective,” said Sauerland.