Lebedev WILL come to UK!

[Ruthless-RKO]

Bellew saying he will only fight unified beltholder Lebedev unde is terms. Lebedev is an ugly beast, has nothing to lose and will fight anyone. Especially to recognise himself as the best cruiserweight. He came here and beat Macarinelli and he would do it again. Bellew IMO is a paper champion, Drozd never lost the title.

[Tarkus]

Bellew saying he will only fight unified beltholder Lebedev unde is terms. Lebedev is an ugly beast, has nothing to lose and will fight anyone. Especially to recognise himself as the best cruiserweight. He came here and beat Macarinelli and he would do it again. Bellew IMO is a paper champion, Drozd never lost the title.

Lot has changed since then. He now has strong promotional backing in Russia and he doesn't need to travel to get big fights. He have not fought abroad for 5 years or more. If Eddie made him a "huge" offer he might be persuaded to travel. But I doubt Bellew team wants Lebedev that badly. Lets see, but I am skeptical of this fight happening soon.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Bellew saying he will only fight unified beltholder Lebedev unde is terms. Lebedev is an ugly beast, has nothing to lose and will fight anyone. Especially to recognise himself as the best cruiserweight. He came here and beat Macarinelli and he would do it again. Bellew IMO is a paper champion, Drozd never lost the title.

Lot has changed since then. He now has strong promotional backing in Russia and he doesn't need to travel to get big fights. He have not fought abroad for 5 years or more. If Eddie made him a "huge" offer he might be persuaded to travel. But I doubt Bellew team wants Lebedev that badly. Lets see, but I am skeptical of this fight happening soon.

Knowing Hearn, he will offer Lebedev his highest purse! I think Bellew was all talk in the ring, obviously he is going to be throwing names out there, he just won the WBC title, as for being the best cruiserweight, the true champion never lost the belt, and Lebedev holds 2 belts

[Boxing Prospect]

Hearn is a pauper to Lebedev's promoter

[crusader]

Apparently Drozd is planning to exercise the WBC title shot he's granted as champ in recess.....with Ryabinsky's $$$ Bellew should be prepared to travel.

[keithmoonhangover]

Bellew wants the big fights so much........

.....that he won't go to Russia to fight Lebedev....

.....and won't Haye to lose 25lbs and drops back to cruiserweight for the first time in eight years.

I'm really pleased for Bomber, especially as he is a former BoxRec poster, but he's just keeping the belt warm for Drozd.

[diddy]

Lebedev will beat Bellew no matter where the fight is. So will Huck.

[chinarich]

It's a tad harsh to label Bellew a paper champion, the belt was vacant owing to Drozd's inability to defend against the number one contender Makabu within the agreed time-frame. Bellew then beat Drozd's mandatory so I think he's a legitimate champion. It seems that Drozd (as champion in recess) is going to exercise his right to challenge for the title, interesting to see whether Bellew can fit a voluntary in before then...

I think Bellew loses to Drozd, by the way...

[Ricky_]

I wonder if a potential UK fight with TB would tempt Afolabi out of retirement.

[boxing_rocks]

Lebedev will not need to go to the U.K. any time soon. Drozd just announced that he is exercising his right to face Bellew by the end of the year.

[Wales]

Bellew saying he will only fight unified beltholder Lebedev unde is terms. Lebedev is an ugly beast, has nothing to lose and will fight anyone. Especially to recognise himself as the best cruiserweight. He came here and beat Macarinelli and he would do it again. Bellew IMO is a paper champion, Drozd never lost the title.

Lot has changed since then. He now has strong promotional backing in Russia and he doesn't need to travel to get big fights. He have not fought abroad for 5 years or more. If Eddie made him a "huge" offer he might be persuaded to travel. But I doubt Bellew team wants Lebedev that badly. Lets see, but I am skeptical of this fight happening soon.

Knowing Hearn, he will offer Lebedev his highest purse!

knowing Hearn he will offer Lebedev peanuts to come to UK, put Bellew in with someone else, then release a statement saying Lebedev refused the fight.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Lot has changed since then. He now has strong promotional backing in Russia and he doesn't need to travel to get big fights. He have not fought abroad for 5 years or more. If Eddie made him a "huge" offer he might be persuaded to travel. But I doubt Bellew team wants Lebedev that badly. Lets see, but I am skeptical of this fight happening soon.

Knowing Hearn, he will offer Lebedev his highest purse!

knowing Hearn he will offer Lebedev peanuts to come to UK, put Bellew in with someone else, then release a statement saying Lebedev refused the fight.

He already offered Vargas his highest purse to come UK

[Ruthless-RKO]

It's a tad harsh to label Bellew a paper champion, the belt was vacant owing to Drozd's inability to defend against the number one contender Makabu within the agreed time-frame. Bellew then beat Drozd's mandatory so I think he's a legitimate champion. It seems that Drozd (as champion in recess) is going to exercise his right to challenge for the title, interesting to see whether Bellew can fit a voluntary in before then...

I didn't mean it in a harsh way, fair enough, he beat the mandatory. Drozd couldn't defend due to injury, not like it was drugs, so to me, to become legit WBC champion, you gotta beat Drozd.

[bigman1968]

Bellew saying he will only fight unified beltholder Lebedev unde is terms. Lebedev is an ugly beast, has nothing to lose and will fight anyone. Especially to recognise himself as the best cruiserweight. He came here and beat Macarinelli and he would do it again. Bellew IMO is a paper champion, Drozd never lost the title.

Lebedev is in Riabinsky stable now, and his boxers do not fight outside Russia. He overpay boxers to come to Russia to loose to his boys, it's his patriotic task

[PredatorHayds]

Tony will have to travel for Drozd, can't see him winning purse or them agreeing to fighting here.

Really not many options to make a lot of money in a voluntary.
Unfortunately the biggest payday for him would be a Clev 3rd fight but that's a really tough sell and would need epic spin to work.

Soft first defence then Drozd in Russia is how I see the Bellew WBC reign going.

[Wales]

Knowing Hearn, he will offer Lebedev his highest purse!

knowing Hearn he will offer Lebedev peanuts to come to UK, put Bellew in with someone else, then release a statement saying Lebedev refused the fight.

He already offered Vargas his highest purse to come UK

and Charles Martin, but they're both calculated risks and he believes his fighter will and increase their standing.
Hearn is a clever player too. Remember him showing the TV cameras the cheque for £1.5m he was offering Frampton to fight his man, Quigg. Frampton turned it down and fans and forums slated him. Then Frampton came out explaining it was a flat offer deal of £1.5m. So no matter what ppv etc.... did that's all he'd get. They estimated ppv would do 12 - 15m on top of initial income but the £1.5m cheque deal openly being shown around didn't include any add ons. Not all that glitters is gold

[chinarich]

It's a tad harsh to label Bellew a paper champion, the belt was vacant owing to Drozd's inability to defend against the number one contender Makabu within the agreed time-frame. Bellew then beat Drozd's mandatory so I think he's a legitimate champion. It seems that Drozd (as champion in recess) is going to exercise his right to challenge for the title, interesting to see whether Bellew can fit a voluntary in before then...

I didn't mean it in a harsh way, fair enough, he beat the mandatory. Drozd couldn't defend due to injury, not like it was drugs, so to me, to become legit WBC champion, you gotta beat Drozd.

Fair enough, good point...

[Straight Nasty]

Bellew would be the underdog against at least 7 of the top cruisers, but he'd have an outside punchers chance against all of them if he performs like he did last week. Surely it's highly likely he would get KO'd by Lebedev the number 1 cruiserweight.