Denis Alexandrovich Lebedev

Denis Lebedev
Data
Birth Name	Denis Alexandrovich Lebedev
Weight class	Cruiser weight
nationality	Russian
birthday	August 14, 1979
place of birth	Stary Oskol
style	Legal display
size	1.80 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	36
Victories	32
Knockout victories	23
Defeats	3
draw	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Denis Alexandrowitsch Lebedew ( Russian Денис Александрович Лебедев ; born August 14, 1979 in Stary Oskol ) is a Russian professional boxer, former world champion of the WBA and IBF in cruiserweight, as well as current world champion of the WBA in cruiserweight.

Amateur career

Lebedev boxed in the Russian national team and was 1997 in Birmingham Junior European Middleweight Champion. He won against Michele Aramini from Italy, Gabrid Orudschiew from Azerbaijan and Hasan Kılıç from Turkey each early and in the final on points against György Hídvégi from Hungary.

In 1998 he won a bronze light heavyweight medal at the Goodwill Games in New York City . With a win against the Polish boxer Tomasz Borowski, he moved into the semifinals, in which he was defeated by the US champion Olanda Anderson on points.

Professional career

From February 2001 he boxed as a professional and was twice Russian light heavyweight champion. After an early win against Cuban Eliseo Castillo (20: 2), former opponent of Wladimir Klitschko and later WBO North American champion , he won in July 2009 with a tKo victory in the third round against former WBO world champion Enzo Maccarinelli (29: 3) the intercontinental championship of the WBO in cruiserweight.

He then defended the title ahead of time against Ali Ismailow (16: 2) and Ignacio Esparza (16: 1) and faced an elimination of the WBO World Championship title in Schwerin , which he against in July 2010 by knockout in the second round Alexander Alexejew (19: 1) won. He was allowed to play against WBO title holder Marco Huck (30: 1) in Berlin on December 18, 2010 , but lost this encounter controversially on points (split decision). Huck already suffered a rib fracture in the fourth lap and was only able to score with aggressive attacks against the technically superior Russian. Two of the judges saw Huck in front with 115: 113, while the third judge scored the match 116: 112 for Lebedev.

But on May 21, 2011 in Moscow he defeated the American Roy Jones junior (54: 7), the former pound for pound best boxer in the world by knockout in the tenth round. With a unanimous victory on points in November against James Toney (73: 6) he became interim WBA cruiserweight world champion. In April 2012 he won by knockout in the second round against Shawn Cox (16-1) from Barbados.

In October 2012, after a three-day convention, the WBA decided to appoint interim world champion Denis Lebedew as the new regular WBA world champion. The decision was justified by the fact that the previous world champion Guillermo Jones had canceled his voluntary title defense against the ranking fifteenth Andres Taylor due to an alleged injury. Jones, who had been world champion since 2008, was considered extremely unreliable and had only defended his title twice since then.

On December 17, 2012 Lebedev defended the World Cup belt against the Colombian Santander Silgado (23-0) by knockout in the fourth round.

In his second title defense on May 17, 2013 in Moscow, he finally met Guillermo Jones and was knocked out in the eleventh round. On October 18, 2013, the WBA announced that traces of doping had been found in Jones' blood. Jones' victory was canceled and the title returned to Lebedev.

On September 27, 2014, he defeated Pawel Kolodziej (33-0) by knockout in the second round. In April 2015, he beat Youri Kalenga (21: 1) on points. In November 2015, an early win against Lateef Kayode (21-0) followed. In May 2016, he defeated Victor Emilio Ramírez (22: 2) in the second round and thereby also became IBF title holder.

On December 3, 2016, he lost his IBF title in Moscow through a split decision to Murat Gassiev (23: 0). He then only got back into the ring on July 9, 2017 and defeated Mark Flanagan (22: 4) in the fight for the WBA World Championship by unanimous decision.

In 2018 he defeated Hizni Altunkaya (30-2) and Mike Wilson (19-0). In December 2019 he lost on points to Thabiso Mchunu (21-5).

predecessor	Office	successor
Guillermo Jones	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) October 30, 2012 - May 17, 2013	Guillermo Jones

predecessor	Office	successor
Guillermo Jones	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) October 2013 -

predecessor	Office	successor
Victor Ramírez	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) May 21, 2016 - December 3, 2016	Murat Gassiev

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lebedev wins by knockout in round 4 against Silgado. Retrieved December 17, 2012 . 
2. ↑ adrivo: Jones wrestles Lebedev in a spectacular ring battle . In: boxen.de. May 17, 2013, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
3. ^ R-Sport: Boxing: WBA strips Jones of title, Lebedev Cruiser Champ again. (No longer available online.) In: themoscownews.com. The Moscow News, October 18, 2013, archived from the original January 28, 2015 ; accessed on January 24, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Profile at BoxRec