Friday night in Russia there's a good looking clash for the WBA interim cruiserweight title as home favourite Denis Lebedev (22-1, 17 KO's) faces big talking American James Toney (73-6-3, 44 KO's).Lebedev is a guy I've tracked for a few years now since he demolished Enzo Maccarinelli in three over in England, and I know he's a guy with a lot of confidence behind him. He was unlucky not to beat Marco Huck over in Germany for the WBO title in December, but it hasnt deterred him and he's since beaten Roy Jones Jr with a 10th round stoppage in May. His form going into the Huck fight was awesome, the guy is a destructive puncher and I watched him look incredibly good against Alexander Alexeev in July, stopping a guy then in the top 10 in a mere two rounds.
Toney as you can see from his record is very experienced, he's a multiple weight world champion and in his prime was an exceptionally good fighter. He has been a world champion down at middleweight, but has never officially been a world champ at heavyweight, which he has been campaigning at, beating John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight title in 2005, but was stripped afterwards for drug-taking. He's fought just once since December 2009, which was in February against a guy called Damon Reed, a very poor fighter who's been stopped quite a few times, but Toney went the full 10 round distance with.
Toney knows how to sell a fight and this should do well over in Russia, but with Toney being 43 and Lebedev only 32 and with very little miles on the clock, I think he can be the first guy to stop Lights Out. Toney hasnt got down to cruiserweight since he won the IBF title in April 2003 and weighed 18st5lbs for his last contest. Lebedev is a lean and determined fighter, with a 73.91 KO%, youth wins here.
No comments:
Post a Comment