Denis Lebedev pugile

Denis Aleksandrovich Lebedev (Russian: Денис Александрович Лебедев; born 14 August 1979) is a Russian former professional boxer who competed between 2001 and 2019. He is a former unified cruiserweight world champion, having held the WBA title from 2012 to 2018, and the IBF title in 2016, and challenged once for the WBO title in 2010.In August 2016, Lebedev was ranked as the world's best active cruiserweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB). In November 2019, he was ranked as the world’s ninth best active cruiserweight by BoxRec.Lebedev turned pro in 2001. In 2004, Lebedev won the vacant Russian light heavyweight title in a shut out 10-round decision win against Artem Vychkin. Following this victory, Lebedev took four years out and returned in 2009 fighting at cruiserweight.In 2009, having a record of 16 wins, 11 by knockout, Lebedev beat Cuban Eliseo Castillo who held a win over Michael Moorer, but was not highly regarded. Lebedev then managed to knockout former WBO titleholder Enzo Maccarinelli. In 2010 he also stopped 2005 amateur world champion Aleksandr Alekseyev by one-punch knockout. This guaranteed him a shot at Marco Huck's WBO title.Lebedev challenged Marco Huck for the WBO cruiserweight title on 18 December 2010 at the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin. Lebedev lost by a very controversial split decision, when both the Dutch and Spanish judges had Huck with 115–113 in front, while the US judge scored it 116–112 for Lebedev. Many experts at ringside thought Lebedev had deserved the decision. After the fight, Marco Huck claimed that he was boxing with a broken rib from the 4th round on.