BoxRec

Although, at the Liverpool Echo Arena on Satuday night, Tony Bellew seemed intent on fighting David Haye next, even staging some showbiz wrestling style baiting, it appears the WBC cruiserweight champion would, ideally, prefer to fight someone else first.

Bellew, who has been the WBC champion since May, harbours ambitions of a unification fight next, taking on Denis Lebedev.

'The dream fight is Denis Lebedev, it really is, but the dream is very hard to make.

'In an ideal world my next fight would be Lebedev and then maybe him. But I'll be honest, I really don't know. We'll see where it goes.'

'I might have to bypass Denis Lebedev and the dream of being undisputed unified champion, and just go for it and try to be heavyweight champ - I think it sounds a bit better to be honest.

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IMO, Lebedev will do worse than Haye.. Guys an ugly machine.

Cruiserweight is full of monster European fighters. Usyk, Breidis (mandatory), Drozd (will want to fight for his WBC title), Ledebev etc..

lebedev has to get passed gassiev first

Bellew has zero shot to beat a guy like Lebedev.

lefthook82 wrote:lebedev has to get passed gassiev first

Abel Sanchez was talking Gassiev up, next knockout artist turned boxing sensation in future

Ruthless-RKO wrote:

lefthook82 wrote:lebedev has to get passed gassiev first

Abel Sanchez was talking Gassiev up, next knockout artist turned boxing sensation in future

I hope so. He looks like a promising fighter.

lefthook82 wrote:lebedev has to get passed gassiev first

Then Lebedev will have his WBA mandatory, probably Yunier Dorticos.
Looks like Lebedev will be busy for awhile. Probably why it's Bellew's "dream fight"
If he's not going to fight Breidis/Drozd, he needs to run that belt.

I’d give Bellew and excellent shot at defeating a one dimensional veteran like Lebedev and perhaps he’d also beat the likes of Krzysztof Glowacki and Beibut Shumenov.

Gassiev appears to be a very good prospect, but he’s not been tested yet. However, if he gets passed Lebedev, then I’d favour him to beat Bellew.

I reckon Olesandr Usyk looks to be on another level than Bellew and would probably make easy work of the Scouser.

Enlightened-One wrote:I’d give Bellew and excellent shot at defeating a one dimensional veteran like Lebedev and perhaps he’d also beat the likes of Krzysztof Glowacki and Beibut Shumenov.

Gassiev appears to be a very good prospect, but he’s not been tested yet. However, if he gets passed Lebedev, then I’d favour him to beat Bellew.

I reckon Olesandr Usyk looks to be on another level than Bellew and would probably make easy work of the Scouser.

Bellew would beat Shumenov but no anyone else you mentioned.

Lebedev...one dimensional...oooookay

Bellew beats Lebedev on points i think in an ugly boring fight if it happens. Usyk and Briedes destroy Bellew. I think Hearn needs to make a Bellew-Cleverly 3 on ppv so we know who is the best out of them.

I thought he had a mando due with that Latvian guy?

tigermoth87 wrote:I thought he had a mando due with that Latvian guy?

Breidis.. He probably wants to maximize his own profits and lose in a bigger fight.

Killer Blow wrote:

Ruthless-RKO wrote:

lefthook82 wrote:lebedev has to get passed gassiev first

Abel Sanchez was talking Gassiev up, next knockout artist turned boxing sensation in future

I hope so. He looks like a promising fighter.

He doesn't have a good amateur background. We yet have to see if he is a top level fighter.

Killer Blow wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote:I’d give Bellew and excellent shot at defeating a one dimensional veteran like Lebedev and perhaps he’d also beat the likes of Krzysztof Glowacki and Beibut Shumenov.

Gassiev appears to be a very good prospect, but he’s not been tested yet. However, if he gets passed Lebedev, then I’d favour him to beat Bellew.

I reckon Olesandr Usyk looks to be on another level than Bellew and would probably make easy work of the Scouser.

Bellew would beat Shumenov but no anyone else you mentioned.

Any top 20 CW would beat the fraud Shumenov.

boxing_rocks wrote:

Killer Blow wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote:I’d give Bellew and excellent shot at defeating a one dimensional veteran like Lebedev and perhaps he’d also beat the likes of Krzysztof Glowacki and Beibut Shumenov.

Gassiev appears to be a very good prospect, but he’s not been tested yet. However, if he gets passed Lebedev, then I’d favour him to beat Bellew.

I reckon Olesandr Usyk looks to be on another level than Bellew and would probably make easy work of the Scouser.

Bellew would beat Shumenov but no anyone else you mentioned.

Any top 20 CW would beat the fraud Shumenov.

Why is he a fraud?

Boxing Prospect wrote:Lebedev...one dimensional...oooookay

Makes me laugh when people say that. His boxing ability is underrated by a lot of people, Bellew included. Not only can he box and punch to a decent level; he's durable as fornicate.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of his style; I think that the only person that might be better than Lebedev at cruiserweight is Usyk. Glowacki might be able to outbox Lebedev but I'd fancy the latter to catch up to him at some stage.

Killer Blow wrote:

boxing_rocks wrote:Any top 20 CW would beat the fraud Shumenov.

Why is he a fraud?

I'm guessing, because his opposition is very poor for a 'World title' holder.

lefty wrote:

Boxing Prospect wrote:Lebedev...one dimensional...oooookay

Makes me laugh when people say that. His boxing ability is underrated by a lot of people, Bellew included. Not only can he box and punch to a decent level; he's durable as eff.

Lebedev will get hit and hit and still stand tall.. he's ugly as anything. He doesn't care if his face gets disfigured

Killer Blow wrote:

boxing_rocks wrote:

Killer Blow wrote:
Bellew would beat Shumenov but no anyone else you mentioned.

Any top 20 CW would beat the fraud Shumenov.

Why is he a fraud?

He gets a special treatment from WBA. He got a LHW belt by robbing Campilo and got an interim CW belt by running from Flores and getting a questionable decision.
He hasn't defended his LHW belt against anybody with a pulse and at some point went 18+ months without a defense, but WBA didn't strip him. WBA promoted him to a regular CW champion even though it should have gone to Dorticos.

He and Sturm are two people clearly getting special treatment from WBA.

..I've been always wondering how come Shumenov was getting yet again the chance to fight for the crown...losing and still coming back..beating basically no one and still declared an official challenger...

His best chance against the other champions is Lebedev IMO.

You have to give Bellew a chance against Lebedev. Lebedev would be favourite and rightly so but Bellew is full of confidence and can whack. If I was placing a bet it'd be Lebedev all day long though but stranger things have happened than Bellew getting the W!

nuthin4sumpthin wrote:

lefthook82 wrote:lebedev has to get passed gassiev first

Then Lebedev will have his WBA mandatory, probably Yunier Dorticos.
Looks like Lebedev will be busy for awhile. Probably why it's Bellew's "dream fight"
If he's not going to fight Breidis/Drozd, he needs to run that belt.

Think a unification would supersede a mandatory so it could happen but I doubt bellew actually wants it