‘The Eagle’ Troyanovsky, who previously held the IBF and IBO titles, fought for the WBA Super-Lightweight World Championship against Kiryl Relikh in a WBSS quarter-final in Yokohama, Japan last year.
A win for the 38-year-old Russian would have made him the oldest world champion ever in the 140 lb division, but over 12 rounds, in a very competitive battle, he lost to the Belarusian ‘Mad Bee’ on scores of 115-113 across the board.
Relikh is facing the number one seed American Regis Prograis in the semi-final and Troyanovsky sees a chance for his former foe to deliver an upset.
“For me, this fight looks like a 50-50 even though maybe people believe that Prograis is going to win the semi-final and tournament,” said Troyanovsky. “But Relikh is a man who doesn’t care what people think. It is really hard to give a prediction because it looks like a very close fight to me.”
The other super-lightweight semi-final, Josh Taylor vs Ivan Baranchyk, could also end in either blue or red corner.
“I see two scenarios: If Baranchyk will be able to regularly come close to Taylor, he can knock him out in later rounds!
“But if Taylor uses his long hands and height advantage to land punches from long distance, and doesn’t allow Baranchyk too much on the inside, he will take it home.”
Fans are encouraged to sign-up for Ticket Alerts to receive an email reminder when tickets can be purchased. All dates and venues for the sensational Season 2 semi-finals will be announced shortly.
WBSS Season 2 Semi-Finals:
Bantamweight
Nonito Donaire vs Zolani Tete
Naoya Inoue vs Emmanuel Rodriguez
Super-Lightweight
Regis Prograis vs Kiryl Relikh
Josh Taylor vs Ivan Baranchyk – 18 May, SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Scotland
Cruiserweight
Mairis Briedis vs Krzysztof Glowacki
Yunier Dorticos vs Andrew Tabiti