Non-title cruiserweight bout between Ray Jones Jr. and Denis Lebedev finalised – Boxing news
The American national cruiserweight contender Roy Jones Jr. is going to fight against the hard-hitting competitor of his division Denis Lebedev in their non-title cruiserweight bout on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at the Sport Complex Krylatskoe in Moscow, Russia.
US television channels do not have any viewership rights to cover that bout directly from Russia so the fans will be disappointed to miss out on the fight.
Roy Jones Jr., who has been outstanding since his debut, has competed in 61 fights in his career, out of which he won 54 bouts including 40 by knockouts. He lost the other 7.
After winning 34 of his consecutive bouts, Captain Hook faced the first ever loss in his career fighting against Montell Griffin at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino & Resort, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
No one can forget Jones’ achievements during 1989 to 1996, but this time he has to be very careful going against Lebedev. He is now returning to cruiserweight division of 200 pounds from light heavyweight division of 175 pounds to fight Lebedev. Boxing fans
and critics are of the view that he should not try to repeat his previous performance when he faced three back-to-back losses in 2005.
Firstly, he lost the technical knockout decision and his WBA, IBA, IBO and Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight titles fighting against Antonio Tarver in 2004. Secondly, Glen Johnson won the knockout decision against him in 2004. Junior Superman RJ faced the
third consecutive loss fighting against Antonio Tarver again in 2005.
The 42-year-old Jones seems to be struggling against the competitors in his last two fights. Boxing fans are of the view that the bout would be a competitive one because he is coming into the ring after a couple of his considerable losses. He would definitely
try to come to the ring with a different fight plan.
Jones’ fight opponent, hard-striker Lebedev has been impressive since his first-ever professional bout in his boxing career as a light heavyweight. It was not a big job for him to gain 25 more pounds to settle down in cruiserweight division. The southpaw
stance Lebedev fought most of his fights in front of his Russia home crowd.
Lebedev fought 22 of his total fights out of which he won 21 bouts including 16 wins by scoring knockout against others and only one loss in his professional boxing career.
The only loss he suffered was in his last fight against Marco Huck at Max-Schmeling-Halle, Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin. Lebedev lost the WBO cruiserweight belt in the process. Lebedev is currently being trained under the useful guidelines of the former undisputed
junior welterweight champion and Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu.
Both the fighters are very excited about the bout. They believe that winning can open the horizons of many possible bouts against big names for them in near future.
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