Denis Lebedev

Denis Aleksandrovich Lebedev (Russian: Денис Александрович Лебедев; born 14 August 1979) is a Russian former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2019. He was a unified world cruiserweight champion, having held the WBA title from 2012 to 2018, and the IBF title in 2016.

Lebedev turned pro in 2001. In 2004, Lebedev won the vacant Russian light heavyweight title in a shut out 10-round decision win against Artem Vychkin. Following this victory, Lebedev took four years out and returned in 2009 fighting at cruiserweight.

In 2009, having a record of 16 wins, 11 by knockout, Lebedev beat Cuban Eliseo Castillo who held a win over Michael Moorer, but was not highly regarded. Lebedev then managed to knockout former WBO titleholder Enzo Maccarinelli. In 2010 he also stopped 2005 amateur world champion Aleksandr Alekseyev by one-punch knockout. This guaranteed him a shot at Marco Huck's WBO title.

Lebedev challenged Marco Huck for the WBO cruiserweight title on 18 December 2010 at the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin. Lebedev lost by a very controversial split decision, when both the Dutch and Spanish judges had Huck with 115–113 in front, while the US judge scored it 116–112 for Lebedev. Many experts at ringside thought Lebedev had deserved the decision. After the fight, Marco Huck claimed that he was boxing with a broken rib from the 4th round on.

In February 2011, Lebedev's manager Vladimir Hryunov confirmed that negotiations were taking place for Lebedev to fight former multiple-weight world champion and former pound for pound best Roy Jones Jr. (54–7, 40 KOs) in Moscow. On 24 March, a deal had been agreed which would see Jones earn a $500,000 purse. The fight, a 10-round bout, which was billed as the “Battle of Two Empires” was announced to take place on 22 May at the Krylatskoye Sports Palace in Moscow. 2,000 tickets were reportedly sold on the day of release. The promoters expected a sell out.

Lebedev knocked Jones out with 2 seconds left in their 10-round bout. After round 9, the scorecards read (87–84, 85–86, 90–81). The controversy arose when Lebedev punched Jones, when it was, to some, clear that Jones was not responsive and was out on his feet. The final punch put Jones out cold on the canvas and he did not regain his senses for more than 5 minutes amid active medical help. After the bout, Lebedev said that he had nothing to be sorry about. Referee Steve Smoger was also accused of incompetence because he did not stop the fight even though Jones could no longer defend himself which led to Jones taking unnecessary damage. In a statement following the fight, Smoger said, "I didn't stop the fight because there were only a matter of seconds remaining in the fight and it seemed that Roy was pretending, trying to trick his opponent. He did this repeatedly in the fight. So I thought Jones was doing the same thing here, trying to deceive Lebedev in the final seconds of the fight in order to lure Denis in to land a big punch [which Jones managed to do in the previous round]." Jones, when asked about his feelings on the punch responded "I forgive him".

In September, it was reported that Lebedev could next fight one of Roy Jones' old foes, James Toney on 5 November 2011. The fight was rescheduled to take place on 4 November at the Khodynka Ice Palace in Moscow over 12 rounds for the interim WBA cruiserweight title. Lebedev was ranked by the WBA at number 3, while Toney entered at number 4, also being the first time he had fought at cruiserweight since 2003. Although Toney still possessed enough defensive skills, Lebedev dominated the fight from the start winning a lopsided decision with scores of 120–108, 120–108 and 120–108.

Lebedev made his first defence of the interim world title at the Crocus City Hall in Myakinino, Russia, on 4 April 2012 against Shawn Cox. In round 2, Cox threw a straight right hand which missed, and walked into a Lebedev counter power left hook to the head, knocking him out. With this win, Lebedev qualified for a shot at the full WBA world champion Guillermo Jones.