BoxRec

Mauricio Sulaiman, Turki Alalshikh unveil WBC Grand Prix of Boxing

Mauricio Sulaiman and Turki Alalshikh have announced the WBC Grand Prix of boxing.

The announcement came at the 62nd annual World Boxing Council Convention on Monday.

The Grand Prix will be a World Cup of the sport, a tournament featuring 128 prospects across four weight classes, and was a dream of Mauricio’s late father, Jose, the former WBC head.

The entrants will be no older than 26 and have no more than 10 fights to their name. The tournament will start in February and feature quarterfinals and semifinals over eight rounds, with the 10-round finals to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The weight classes contested will be featherweight, junior welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight.



-------------
Earlier in the evening, Alalshikh was named the WBC’s Man of the Year, an award previously won by Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela and Pope Francis.

Alalshikh addressed the audience and urged Wladimir Klitschko, the former heavyweight champion, to come out of retirement to consider a fight with either the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury bout on December 21, or the February 22 contest between IBF titleholder Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker.

I hope I’m wrong but I don’t really see this working.

They have to get 32 fighters per weight division that the promoters are willing to risk who are younger than 26 and haven’t had many fights. Someone like FWarren brings his fighters up gradually. Would he let his best prospects be part of this? Same with Arum. Eddie is willing to throw his guys in a little bit more but even then I’d be surprised if he lets his best prospects in it.

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 05:41 I hope I’m wrong but I don’t really see this working.

They have to get 32 fighters per weight division that the promoters are willing to risk who are younger than 26 and haven’t had many fights. Someone like FWarren brings his fighters up gradually. Would he let his best prospects be part of this? Same with Arum. Eddie is willing to throw his guys in a little bit more but even then I’d be surprised if he lets his best prospects in it.

They will if the money is right!
I guess the promoters will want some influence over the draw.

Sulaiman clinging to Turki's thawb for dear life, smart business move from him tbf.

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 05:41 I hope I’m wrong but I don’t really see this working.

They have to get 32 fighters per weight division that the promoters are willing to risk who are younger than 26 and haven’t had many fights. Someone like FWarren brings his fighters up gradually. Would he let his best prospects be part of this? Same with Arum. Eddie is willing to throw his guys in a little bit more but even then I’d be surprised if he lets his best prospects in it.

Currently, none of their prospects fit into this category at Heavyweight, except Itauma who would obviously be looking at someone bigger. I don't think it's going to be any known names, will likely be guys who don't have any amateur or known background like future versions of Fisher or Wardley at best.

Coco wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 05:59

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 05:41 I hope I’m wrong but I don’t really see this working.

They have to get 32 fighters per weight division that the promoters are willing to risk who are younger than 26 and haven’t had many fights. Someone like FWarren brings his fighters up gradually. Would he let his best prospects be part of this? Same with Arum. Eddie is willing to throw his guys in a little bit more but even then I’d be surprised if he lets his best prospects in it.

They will if the money is right!
I guess the promoters will want some influence over the draw.

I’d imagine the money will be big for the winner/finalist but the guys would have to win 4 fights to get there against other supposedly good prospects.

I certainly like the idea of it but let’s see what happens.

Agree the promoters would want some control of the draw. Not sure how that happens other than that though some element of seeding which, due to the guys having so few fights, would be tricky to do objectively.

joshj909 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 07:31

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 05:41 I hope I’m wrong but I don’t really see this working.

They have to get 32 fighters per weight division that the promoters are willing to risk who are younger than 26 and haven’t had many fights. Someone like FWarren brings his fighters up gradually. Would he let his best prospects be part of this? Same with Arum. Eddie is willing to throw his guys in a little bit more but even then I’d be surprised if he lets his best prospects in it.

Currently, none of their prospects fit into this category at Heavyweight, except Itauma who would obviously be looking at someone bigger. I don't think it's going to be any known names, will likely be guys who don't have any amateur or known background like future versions of Fisher or Wardley at best.

It would probably be a step back for Itauma. Eddie could lob in Teremoana but again, may be thinking of bigger things for him.

I think it will be for guys who have had good amateur careers but not real elite ones and possibly lean towards non English speakers.

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 07:42

joshj909 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 07:31

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 05:41 I hope I’m wrong but I don’t really see this working.

They have to get 32 fighters per weight division that the promoters are willing to risk who are younger than 26 and haven’t had many fights. Someone like FWarren brings his fighters up gradually. Would he let his best prospects be part of this? Same with Arum. Eddie is willing to throw his guys in a little bit more but even then I’d be surprised if he lets his best prospects in it.

Currently, none of their prospects fit into this category at Heavyweight, except Itauma who would obviously be looking at someone bigger. I don't think it's going to be any known names, will likely be guys who don't have any amateur or known background like future versions of Fisher or Wardley at best.

It would probably be a step back for Itauma. Eddie could lob in Teremoana but again, may be thinking of bigger things for him.

I think it will be for guys who have had good amateur careers but not real elite ones and possibly lean towards non English speakers.

I can see that. Plenty of Africans, Latin Americans and guys from other parts who will probably benefit.

One thing that might be interesting. If one of these guys beats five guys consecutively with records like 6-0, will they end up ranked in the Boxrec top 15?

joshj909 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 07:51

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 07:42

joshj909 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 07:31

Currently, none of their prospects fit into this category at Heavyweight, except Itauma who would obviously be looking at someone bigger. I don't think it's going to be any known names, will likely be guys who don't have any amateur or known background like future versions of Fisher or Wardley at best.

It would probably be a step back for Itauma. Eddie could lob in Teremoana but again, may be thinking of bigger things for him.

I think it will be for guys who have had good amateur careers but not real elite ones and possibly lean towards non English speakers.

I can see that. Plenty of Africans, Latin Americans and guys from other parts who will probably benefit.

One thing that might be interesting. If one of these guys beats five guys consecutively with records like 6-0, will they end up ranked in the Boxrec top 15?

I’m sure they would. 5 wins against guys actually trying to win would be better than some guys getting top 15 rankings.

This sounds cool, but at heavyweight no one fits the criteria. How are they going to fill a bracket.//

If they did this a year ago, and it had Moses, huni, torrez jr, fisher, hovansyannn, then a bunch of filler around them

(I am pretty sure there isn’t 32 heavyweights under 26 with less than 10 fights…) definatly not 32 that are even remotely prospects…

Probably a bit like that show the contender. It sort of made household names out of limited prospects

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 05:41 I hope I’m wrong but I don’t really see this working.

They have to get 32 fighters per weight division that the promoters are willing to risk who are younger than 26 and haven’t had many fights. Someone like FWarren brings his fighters up gradually. Would he let his best prospects be part of this? Same with Arum. Eddie is willing to throw his guys in a little bit more but even then I’d be surprised if he lets his best prospects in it.

They will make it work with $$$$

It's gonna be hard to work in the heavyweight division, when vast majority of the fighters are already over 26,

It's be far more interesting if they did it like age 29 max and 16-0.

some HW prospects that fit the criteria:

Viktor Jurk 10-0, age 24
Dainier Pero 9-0, age 25
Aleksei Dronov 4-0 , age 22
Vartan Arutyunyan 9-0, age 24
Kashaun Davis 9-0, age 24
Matty Harris 7-1, age 24
Federico Pacheco Jr 7-0, age 20
Oleksandr Hrytsiv 9-0, age 25
Sanel Hasanovic 8-1-1, age 25

Snide bringing Wlad up, no one wants to see an old champ getting hurt.

Will this entire tournament complet in 4 days… or is 4 days for the first round/bracket.

maverick23 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 05:41 I hope I’m wrong but I don’t really see this working.

They have to get 32 fighters per weight division that the promoters are willing to risk who are younger than 26 and haven’t had many fights. Someone like FWarren brings his fighters up gradually. Would he let his best prospects be part of this? Same with Arum. Eddie is willing to throw his guys in a little bit more but even then I’d be surprised if he lets his best prospects in it.

The only reason all these big fights have been made recently,and why promoters are suddenly becoming best friends is because there is a pot of gold on offer. So the risk factor suddenly disappears.

Whether or not 26 under 26 years old with a handful of fights can be found is another matter. I suspect they will be found but I'm not sure how good the standard will be. The other problem is how will they be matched? Will they be seeded in order of ability or drawn out of a hat?

there are plenty of fighters for this.

Plenty are unattached to a big promoter, or have a promoter who don’t have any TV deals.

This is all about exposure too

Still no real idea how this works, I know it's on from Thursday to Sunday but how many rounds is it contested?? Is it a weight division per day ??

bit random Turki using the time to ask a 49 year old to come out of retirement. How is that going to help the sport or Wlad's brain. Do what Lewis did and stay happily retired, hopefully Wlad is too wealthy content and intelligent to fight again.

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑11 Apr 2025, 02:42 there are plenty of fighters for this.

Plenty are unattached to a big promoter, or have a promoter who don’t have any TV deals.

This is all about exposure too

Agreed , you might even see 4 fights a year from some .

Often wonder why fighters are so inactive.

Many will catch attention from promoters. It’s a way for those prospects to make a name for themselves.