Denis Lebedev: I Think Yunier Dorticos Will Beat Murat Gassiev

[Ruthless-RKO]

WBA "super" cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev believes his countryman, IBF champion Murat Gassiev, will get beaten by WBA 'regular' champion Yunier Dorticos when they collide early next year in the semi-finals of the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) tournament.

"I will probably even root for Murat in the hope that he will win this Super Series, and then we will probably be able to fight with him again, it will be a beautiful fight. I have no complaints against him, but it will be great if Murat wins in the Super Series and we fight again," Lebedev said to Dilshad Lomovskikh.

"Wlodarczyk tuned in to have one kind of fight, but it turned out differently... it's boxing, everyone wants to fulfill their plan. Wlodarczyk did the job calmly, in his own way, and Murat got better.... a good punch landed to the body, to the right side, about the same kind of punch that got me and it was impossible to for him to take it."

Having said that, Lebedev believes Dorticos will prove to be a very difficult foe for Gassiev.

"Dorticos is also a good boxer. His movements and punching techniques will work against Murat. The Cuban throws a lot of punches. He blew past Dmitry Kudryashov. My opinion is that [Dorticos] will win against Murat. He has a good speed, he can fight at a distance and at close range, and Murat pays little attention to movements, defense. He simply cuts off the ring and presses forward. But this is boxing, he can always create a surprise, in any fight."

[jamamb]

everyone else in the tournament wouldve blown past sloth brawler kudryashov. by the way, leb not defending wba vs gassiev was an 'im gonna lose' move

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I agree.

[boxing_rocks]

Lebedev is butt hurt. Gassiev almost ended his career. Lebedev had to post a video a few days after the fight proving that he wasn't in a hospital.

[Best Coast]

Dorticos resume is not that impressive but other than Wlod and Lebedev, Gassiev's credentials are rather shallow as well.

Unbeaten fighters can be sometimes difficult to gauge because their weaknesses havent been exposed yet. I have a hunch that one of these guys is going to expose the other's weakness and it could well be either guy, so I see it as pretty close to a 50/50 fight.

[jamamb]

its true that gassiev really only has two opponents of note but lebedev was a true high level test though. dorricos best opponent deserved like 3 rounds against lebedev and dorticos struggled and was losing when he scored 10th round stoppage. some ppl now want to act like that was a dominant win but as i posted in other thread accounts of the bout at the time rightfully call it grueling and ultra competetive.

also dorticos down against fields and stopped multiple times in amateurs. hes good but having watched a lot of him and not just kud i think hell get ground down. but i cant write off any of the guys still in it.