The WSB, which is owned by the International Boxing Association (AIBA), is currently the only professional boxing competition in the world that allows fighters to retain their Olympic eligibility.

The WSB Individual Championships come just over a month after WSB Team Championships at ExCeL, where Italian franchise Dolce and Gabbana Milano Thunder took home the trophy after they beat Russian franchise Dynamo Moscow.

The event tomorrow also comes less than two months before ExCeL hosts the London 2012 Olympic boxing competition.

The final tomorrow will see five fights at the five different weights of bantamweight (54kg), lightweight (61kg), middleweight (73kg), light heavyweight (85kg) and heavyweight (91+kg).

The top two ranked boxers from season two in each weight category will battle it out in seven, three minute rounds to become WSB World Champion at their respective weight.

The weigh-in was originally scheduled to take place outdoors at Covent Garden but it was moved here, opposite ExCeL, due to heavy rain in London today.

Despite the late change, all the fighters looked in impeccable condition ahead of the Individual Championships.

At bantamweight, 20-year-old Elias Emigdio of the Mexico City Guerreros goes in as narrow favourite in the opening fight against 27-year-old Gairbek Germakhanov of the Baku Fires after he claimed victory in all four of his bouts this season, winning twice at home and twice away.

Lightweight will see an intriguing match-up as Moscow Dynamo's Adlan Abdurashidov, a highly rated 21-year-old orthodox Russian, takes on the Mexico City Guerreros' tall and awkward Juan Romero.


Middleweight king and Ukrainian sensation Sergiy Derevyanchenko (pictured above) of the Dolce and Gabbana Milano Thunder will look to retain the title that he won last season when he comes up against Azerbaijan's Heybulla Mursalov of the Baku Fires.

He will also be confident after helping his team secure WSB Team Championship just over a month ago in the same venue.

It will then be an all Azerbaijan light heavyweight contest when two Baku Fires heavy-hitters face-off.

Top ranked Azamat Murtuzaliyev will be battling his teammate Ramazan Magomedau for the WSB light heavyweight title in what is set to be the most fascinating match-up of the evening.

But the finale of the boxing feast will culminate when Kazakhstan's heavyweight Ruslan Myrsatayev of the Astana Arlans takes on the giant Croatian Filip Hrgović of Paris United.

"After the resounding success of the WSB Team Final, the competition returns to the soon to become mythic venue for the Olympic Games boxing event," said C K Wu, the AIBA President and WSB chairman.

"The WSB is foremost a team competition but during the regular season the boxers are ranked according to their performances and then get the opportunity of staking their claims to take home the WSB Champions belts.

"In the end this is all what boxing is about: individual glory.

"And I am very proud to say that on 9 June you will witness a glance of what the AIBA Professional Boxing (APB) programme will be in a very near future.

"As of the fall of 2013, the world's top boxers will compete in an individual ranking format at national, continental and worldwide levels.

"Finally our beloved sport will have only one world champion in each of our ten weigh categories, crowned in a transparent and authentic competition."

Tickets are still available for the finals by clicking here. 

The fights will also be live online by clicking here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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