According to promoter Andrei Ryabinsky, his side is currently mulling the possibility of pushing for Denis Lebedev (30-2, 22 KOs) to get a mandatory shot at WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (15-0, 11 KOs).
On Saturday night in Moscow, Usyk dominated Murat Gassiev over twelve rounds to win the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament and to unify the World Boxing Council (WBC), the World Boxing Organization (WBO), the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) titles.
At the moment, Lebedev is the WBA's "champion in recess."
Lebedev has been out of the ring since July 2017, when he won a twelve round decision over Mark Flanagan.
He was then ordered to make a mandatory defense against WBA "regular" champion Yunier Dorticos.
But because of his injuries and inactivity, he was stripped of the full title and Dorticos became the "super" champion under the sanctioning body.
Then earlier this year Dorticos fought, and was knocked out, by Gassiev in their World Boxing Super Series clash.
Pursuant to the WBA's regulations, Lebedev as the "champion in recess" is capable of gaining a direct world title shot.
After he was stripped of his full title status, Lebedev had indicated that he was going to target the World Boxing Super Series tournament winner.
In December 2016, Lebedev lost a twelve round majority decision to Gassiev.
Prior to that loss, Lebedev had won eight fights in a row that spanned back to his TKO defeat at the hands of Guillermo Jones - who in the aftermath had come up positive for a performance enhancing drug and the outcome was eventually overturned to a no-decision. A rematch with Jones fell apart at the last hour, when it was revealed that Jones had once again tested positive for a PED.
2023-10-21 11:21:09
