Home Boxing News The Cruisers take centre stage tonight – Lebedev, Wlodarczyk vs Drozd

The Cruisers take centre stage tonight – Lebedev, Wlodarczyk vs Drozd

The biggest card of the weekend takes place in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday as the Euro-centric Cruiserweight division is showcased with two major championship fights on the same bill.  Of course, Russian boxers compete in both fights and the show provides us with another example of how professional boxing in the old communist state is thriving and improving at a rate of knots.

In what have to be considered co-main events, Polish boxers provide stiff opposition to the Russian boxers.  Krzysztof Wlodarczyk defends his WBC title against local fighter Grigory Drozd whilst the WBA title is being contested by champion Denis Lebedev and Polish challenger Pawel Kolodziej.  Of the four combatants, Lebedev is probably the best known in the UK as several of his fights have been televised on these shores.  Let us look at his fight first.

Lebedev, 25-2 (19), takes on the appearance of a quintessential Russian, coming to the ring in a camouflage Special Forces Unit uniform, complete with beret, with his trademark ring entry song always played by a band wearing the same uniform.  It is a unique and striking ring entrance.  To my knowledge, Lebedev has not served in the forces, but it obviously gives him inspiration as he makes his way to the ring.  On Saturday he makes his belated return to boxing to defend the belt which he actually “lost” in the ring last time out.  It was in May 2013 that he took on the man who was to become his nemesis, Panamanian Guillermo Jones.  Jones was the “champion in recess” at the time and the two met for all the marbles.

They produced a fight which was fitting to be a unification match, with both fighters blasting each other to a virtual standstill.  First one and then the other would get an advantage before Lebedev eventually ceded in the eleventh round.  It was ultimately decided by the horrific injury that Lebedev suffered when his right eye swelled so badly that he looked like Quasimodo for the best part of the fight.  He was shamefully allowed to box for round after round by the referee and his cornerman, heretofore respected former world champion Kostya Tszyu.  It was painful to watch and many people have admitted to being concerned that Leb’s injury might result in permanent damage to his eye.  However, Lebedev has since said that after a night in hospital and once the swelling had reduced, he was fine and was quickly back in the gym.  It transpired that Jones had failed a drug test taken before the fight, which showed positive for a diuretic.  The WBA ordered a rematch, returned their belt to Lebedev, but strangely allowed the stoppage victory for Jones to stand.

In April of this year, with Lebedev ready to take on Jones in the return fight, rumours were rife in the hours leading up to fight time that the Panamanian had once again failed a drugs test a couple of days previously, and with millions tuning in to watch the fight on television around the world, the rematch was cancelled.  Lebedev cut a sorry figure as he spoke apologetically to his fans from the ring in his boxing kit.  His chance of revenge had been snatched from him.  He will not be sad then to see Jones disappearing in his rear view mirror.  His challenge this weekend is of a slightly less stern nature.

Kolodziej, 33-0 (18), has a sparkling record on paper, but this rather falls apart under interrogation.  The only notable opponent that the Pole has faced so far in his career is former fringe contender Felix Cora from Puerto Rico, whom he beat by unanimous decision in March 2011.  By that time Cora already had four losses on his record and had become something of a gatekeeper.  Kolodziej also beat former light-heavyweight contender Richard Hall in April of last year.  Hall was years past his sell-by date and had lost five of his last six fights, thus being no sort of test for the Pole.  Interestingly, Hall had been stopped seven times prior to his fight with Kolodziej, but Pawel was unable to finish their fight inside the distance and settled for an eight round decision.  There seems little chance then that he will be able to move the hard man Lebedev.

It looks as though Kolodziej’s backers have been biding their time with their man.  He is now 34 years old and it would appear that they have been waiting for a title shot to come around, without pushing Pawel into a dangerous, risky fight where he might actually earn a shot.  Such a chance has now arrived, but he is having to go into the lion’s den in order to take it.  With Guillermo Jones now seemingly permanently out of the picture, Lebedev is probably the best cruiserweight in the world.  He is aching for a rematch with the other main contender for that role, Marco Huck.  The two met in Germany in December 2010, with Huck taking a split decision.  I, along with many others, felt that Lebedev clearly won that match by really just outworking the German.  It was a smashing fight though and a rematch would promise more of the same.  However, Huck probably has bigger fish to fry.  As for Saturday, look for Lebedev to be too rough, experienced and motivated for Kolodziej.  He should score a late stoppage.

The other co-main event on the night is far more difficult to call.  Long-standing WBC champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, 49-2-1 (35), puts his belt on the line for the seventh time and makes possibly his most difficult defence to date.  His Russian challenger Grigory Drozd, 38-1 (27), is on an excellent run of form, during which time he has won and defended the European title.  Drozd already has experience of fighting a touted Pole, as it was he who first exposed the Sauerland cruiserweight hope Mateusz Masternak, taking his undefeated record in October 2013.  Drozd put in a masterful performance that night, outboxing Masternak and eventually wearing him down for an eleventh round stoppage.  That was for the European belt and Drozd has subsequently defended successfully with a first round stoppage of Jeremy Ouanna of France.

Wlodarczyk has gone under the radar somewhat, particularly in the UK.  Whereas both Marco Huck and Yoan Pablo Hernandez’s fights are always on television, we have seen little of the exciting Polish champion.  However, each time I have watched him he has provided a thriller for the fans.  He should be far better known due to his exciting style.  Krzysztof has fought some of the stalwarts of the division over the years, being involved in a two-fight series with Steve Cunningham, a trilogy with Giacobbe Fragomeni and another double with Francisco Palacios.  The reason for these series is that so many of Wlodarczyk’s fights go down to the wire and end up in disputed decisions, often bringing about a much called-for rematch.

The question now is how much longer can Wlodarczyk keep going to the well.  In two of his last four fights, he has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, coming from behind to stop Aussie Danny Green and another Russian contender Rakhim Chakhkiev in eleven and eight rounds respectively.  The Green fight, in particular, looked lost.  Green boxed magnificently that night against his naturally bigger foe and was in an unassailable points lead before the big punching Pole finally got to his man and flattened him, cancelling out the points deficit.  Drozd would also do well to note that countryman Chakhkiev was undefeated and favoured to beat Wlodarczyk before also coming a cropper against the fierce punching champion.

With that being said, I am loathe to pick against Wlodarczyk.  However, I believe that Drozd is boxing well enough to finally remove the WBC belt from the Pole’s grasp by taking a close but clear decision.  Just as long as he remembers to duck.

This excellent show is being promoted by Russian billionaire Andrey Ryabinsky, under the promotional name of  “World of Boxing”.  This organisation, remember, was responsible for putting together the mega-money show which featured Wladimir Klitschko defending his heavyweight title against Alexander Povetkin last year and resulting in both boxers receiving a huge payday.  Ryabinsky is passionate about the sport and we can expect to see Russian professional boxing coming even more to the fore in the future with his help and patronage.

Unfortunately, this show is untelevised in the U.K.

@RachelAylett1

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