By Alexey Sukachev
WBA cruiserweight champion and TBRB #3 rated 200lber Denis Lebedev (27-2, 20 KOs) has officially suffered two losses in his career. While the second one – the eleventh-round stoppage from Panamanian Guillermo Jones in a memorable war – was highly controversial due to Jones’ PED allegations, the first one still haunts the Russian.
In December 2010 previously undefeated WBO #1 rated Lebedev travelled to Germany and pushed then-champion Marco Huck to his limits only to lose a close and somewhat questionable split decision at his opponent’s backyard.
Last Friday, almost five years later, long-time WBO cruiserweight champion Marko Huck (38-3-1, 26 KOs) was on the verge of surpassing one of the division’s most prestigious records. However, instead of surpassing Johnny Nelson’s streak of 13 consecutive title defenses, Huck suffered a shocking KO 11 loss to previously undefeated but also untested Pole Krzysztof Glowacki (25-0, 16 KOs).
Despite the bitter loss suffered by his former opponent, Lebedev is eager to give Huck another shot.
“Certainly, I’m not as interested in this fight as I was before because Marco is no longer a champion. However, I’m more than eager to avenge my previous loss to him and to make him pay for his arrogant statements about me and my promoter. Firstly, he said that he wasn’t interested in a rematch because of my loss to Jones, even though I was ahead on the scorecards at the time of stoppage, and only an accident prevented me from a win that night. Then he asked for an inadequate purse. Now I’m ready to give Marko a chance but only under my financial conditions”.
“Andrey Mikhailovich Ryabinskiy offered him 500,000 USD to fight me. I’m also glad to face him for that money – even after his loss. I’ll gladly give him this chance. I want to please my loyal fans in Moscow and to stage it here, in Russia - but if necessary and if financials are better in Germany we can collide there as well. Let him name any city he wants – if he has enough money, I’ll take it. We are ready for negotiations”.
Andrey Ryabinskiy, CEO of World of Boxing (who promote Lebedev), was looking carefully at a possible rematch of the first Huck-Lebedev showdown but parties were unable to reach an agreement over financial side of the equation.
It’s where TBRB #1 (until recently) cruiserweight Huck didn’t hesitate to drop some verbal bombs.
“I was contacted by one of Ryabinskiy’s underlings, a “penguin” (of sorts). I was asked if I’m ready to fight Lebedev in a rematch and I’ve certainly told him that I was ready to do that anywhere anytime – in Moscow, or in St. Petersburg, or in any other city. But then he whispered: 'You know what? Mr. Ryabinskiy has some financial problems now. Take less money for the fight.' This means, Ryabinksiy is experiencing some financial problems. This crisis hit him severely, and I’d have earned much more for any garbage fight against tomato cans than for a rematch with Lebedev”, said Huck to Alexander Pavlov of Sportbox.ru a week before his match-up against Glowacki.
Ryabinskiy fired off in response.
“If Huck dares to think I’m on a losing edge of the [financial] crisis, he is wrong. I haven’t lost my stock at all”, said Ryabinksiy to TASS. “We have offered him 500,000 USD for the Denis fight. Huck refused to take it and made a counter-proposal with an unrealistic sum, extending 5 million euros for him. Everyone with a sufficient knowledge of boxing will understand clearly who is kidding, and who is not."