Some of the world's best boxers will travel to Baku in Azerbaijan next month for their first taste of boxing under the new World Series of Boxing (WSB) rules. The boxers will train and compete as two fictitious franchise teams in the first test event covering all aspects of the future World Series competition.

Article & Photo Source: WSB

26 March 2010, Lausanne, Switzerland

In a realistic test of the future WSB competition format, the boxers will be divided into two teams to simulate the two-hour matches between the 12 WSB franchises teams that will be a regular feature of the boxing calendar from November this year. Team A is a mixture of some of the biggest boxing names from Russia and the Ukraine, as well as upcoming stars from France, which is in the running for one of the European WSB franchises. Team B features two promising boxing pairs from Brazil and the USA, plus a proven contender from Germany.For both teams it will be the first experience of competing without head guards and with a new scoring system.

The lightweight (61kg) bout pitches 2007 World Champion, 2008 World Cup gold medalist and 2009 AIBA World Championships bronze medalist Albert Selimov from Russia against Brazil's Everton Lopes. Selimov, 24, will face 19-year-old Lopes in a battle of experience against youth. In addition to making the quarter-finals at the 2009 AIBA World Championships and the 2009 AIBA President's Cup, Lopes was also ranked as Brazil's best potential WSB boxer by the WSB evaluators.

In the middleweight (73kg) contest, Ukrainian national champion Sergiy Derevyanchenko will face Brazil's Yamaguchi Falcao in the pair's first head-to-head encounter. Derevyanchenko took gold at the 2009 AIBA President's Cup but Yamaguchi was thwarted by Moldova's Cotiujanschii in the semi-finals and had to settle for bronze. Nevertheless, Yamaguchi is also hotly tipped for the WSB after his style caught the attention of the WSB evaluators.

The two heavyweight bouts promise thrilling action, with young raw talents from either side of the Atlantic experiencing their first taste of international boxing. The light heavyweight (85kg) bout has the potential to be the most exciting of all, since both boxers are ranked second in their country and have a boxing style ideally suited to the WSB. Sijuola Shabazz has said he is aiming for nothing less than the WSB individual championship title. He will face Ludovic Groguhe from France, who lost to Abdelkader Bouhenia in the final of this year's French national championships, but impressed the crowd in his semi-final against Kevin Buval with the only knock-out of the entire tournament. In the heavyweight (+91kg) contest, the duel of the youngsters will pit rising star Djybril Coupe from France, who is 19 years old, against US number two Javier Torres, who is 21.

Before the test event, athletes, coaches, referees and judges will attend a week-long training camp in Azerbaijan. At the training camp, three AIBA-certified coaches per team – all with experience at national team level – will put the boxers through their paces with a program to adjust their boxing style to the rigors of the WSB, where they will compete over five rounds of three minutes using new gloves developed specially for the WSB. Two AIBA-certified Referee and Judge Instructors will also train the four referees and judges to officiate under the new WSB rules.

The test event will take place on the evening of the 21st of April at the Baku Sports Palace two days before the first bouts of the AIBA Youth World Championships, which will see young boxers from over 100 countries competing for the world title and a coveted place at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games in Singapore later this year.