They plan to do so with television Mcgregor vs Mayweather Live Stream deals already locked up around the world, although an American deal is not complete. However, Schaefer said he is in “advanced discussions” with Showtime. Stephen Espinoza, who runs Showtime Sports and has had a close relationship with Schaefer for many years, attended the news conference on Thursday.
The promoters said the plan is to hold half of the 14 cards in venues in the United States, with the other half taking place elsewhere in the world, though Europe will be the focus. They said each fight would take place in a major arena, and then they ticked off several, including New York’s Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center, Staples Center in Los Angeles, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and other major venues in the United Kingdom and Germany.
The quarterfinals in each tournament would take place in September or October, with the semifinals in January or February and the finals in May. Parent company Comosa AG, a Swiss company with principal owners from the world of marketing (Highlight Event & Entertainment), broadcasting (Modern Times Group) and boxing (Team Sauerland), said it has committed to three years’ worth of tournaments.”The tournament will set new standards, ensure coherent storylines and provide top-class boxing throughout the year,” Comosa executive Roberto Dalmiglio said. “It is Comosa’s ambition to turn the World Boxing Super Series into the world’s biggest and best boxing tournament.”Sauerland was central to the creation of Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic super middleweight tournament, a modified round-robin that ran from 2009 to 2012 and crowned Andre Ward as the winner. Sauerland also came up with World Boxing Super Series, which he said has been in the works for three years.
Sauerland pitched the idea to Schaefer, hoping to bring him into the fold. Big-money ideas in boxing have come and gone time and again, and Schaefer said he was skeptical at first. But when he saw the presentation at a meeting he said he was blown away.
“I was skeptical at first but went into the meeting with an open mind,” Schaefer said. “When I started to realize the quality of the material, the quality of the people, I immediately knew this is going to be something I not only wanted to be involved in, but I know it will succeed. These are people who not only have passion and deep pockets for the sport, these are people with the expertise to execute a tournament like this at the highest level.”Once they have a field of fighters for each tournament they plan to hold a televised “draft gala” in June. The top four fighters in each tournament will be seeded, with the seeded fighters then selecting their opponents from the unseeded remaining four. The top seed will have the first choice of opponent. If a participant has a world title, a defense of that belt would be incorporated into the tournament.