Ivan Baranchyk Pulls out of World Boxing Super Series

Anyone who knows Absolutely Boxing knows we love the World Boxing Super Series. The tournament has given us an undisputed cruiserweight champion, a classic super middleweight tournament, and the current bantamweight tournament was stacked until Ryan Burnett’s injury.

But this weekend, Ivan Baranchyk, contender in the Junior Welterweight tournament, announced he was pulling out of the semi finals. The issue stems from a debate over his pay from the Quarterfinals.

According to ESPN’s Dan Rafael, the issue stems over disagreements with payment terms and lack of communication on the semi finals. According to Baranchyk’s camp, the WBSS has been unclear about his upcoming match with Josh Taylor. Baranchyk also claims that payment for the quarterfinals was late and only arrived after his team threatened legal action.

While supposedly several other fighters have claimed to have been paid late in the second season of the WBSS, Comosa AG, the company behind the WBSS says this isn’t true. Comosa AG also claims that their contracts are airtight and Baranchyk won’t be able to back out.

I guess we will see where this all shakes out, hopefully it doesn’t mean the WBSS is losing money and will soon be gone. The tournaments have been a blast and drawn in some great talent. But maybe it was fool’s gold, too good to be true. Only time will tell at this point.