VAN NUYS, California – The inaugural World Boxing Council Grand Prix presented by Riyadh Season gets underway at the BLVD City Global Theater in Saudi Arabia beginning April 17 on DAZN.

The single-elimination tournaments will take place across four weight categories – featherweight, super lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight – and will feature 32 participants in each division. The fights will feature open scoring, instant replay, no draws, and random drug testing, and the winners of the finals will take home a $200,000 cash prize.

In the heavyweight division, two of the contenders – 2020 Ukrainian Olympian Tsotne Rogava (10-0, 7 KOs) and Dante Stone (17-1, 11 KOs) – are signed to Los Angeles-based promotional company Toro Promotions.

Toro Promotions founder and CEO Azat Torosyan is confident that either of his guys can clean out the competition. To prepare for the occasion, Ragava and Stone have been sparring with each other at the Tengoose Boxing Gym in Los Angeles, all while hoping they’re situated on opposite sides of the bracket so they won’t have to really fight until a potential finals showdown.

The 31-year-old Ragava is trained by Hall of Fame coach Joe Goossen and has nearly 300 amateur Muay Thai fights, 30 amateur boxing bouts, and 35 professional kickboxing fights under his belt.

Stone, a 30-year-old awkward southpaw from Arizona, scored his most meaningful win last year with a unanimous decision against Alexander Flores.

“The WBC Grand Prix is a great concept, format, and platform that activates fighters from all over the world,” Torosyan told The Ring in an interview. “It’s a great way for the fighters to develop further and for great fights to be made. Our guys are in a great position because they have tremendous experience. If they end up on different sides, they are going to end up facing each other, and we’ll have a winner either way. That’s how I see it. The winner is going to have great exposure worldwide and a new identity.”

Winners in each category also become mandatory challengers to the WBC silver title, allowing them to position themselves appropriately for more meaningful fights.

Torosyan deems 2024 Uzbekistan Olympic gold medalist Lazizbek Mullojonov (5-0, 5 KOs) as the most dangerous contender in the field.

Toro Promotions also handles heavyweight contender Kingsley Ibeh (15-2-1, 13 KOs). Still, they didn’t want to tie up Ibeh with the tournament, which requires commitments with dates in June, August, and October, and the finals in December due to the tournament format.

“We didn’t want to have too many of our guys in the tournament and then have them potentially face each other,” said Torosyan. “We see Tsotne and Dante dominating and controlling the pool of opponents throughout the tournament and are confident one of them will win the WBC Grand Prix heavyweight title.”