By Andrey Krikunov

WBO Inter-Continental cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev wants to fight for the EBU title. The team of the Russian boxer, who recently knocked off ex-champion Enzo Maccarinelli, is trying to set up a bout for the European title.

“At present we are considering the possibility of a fight for the EBU title, - Lebedev’s manager Vladimir Hrunov told Sportbox.ru. – Denis holds second place in the rankings of this organization. Here’s the situation for the time being: the champion Marco Huck made this title vacant and the official challenger Firat Arslan is injured. The plans of Krzysztof Wlodarczyk who is ranked first are not clear for the moment. But to tell you the truth we are ready for the European championship fight. Wlodarczyk now is negotiating a possible rematch with the Italian fighter Giacobbe Fragomeni. I think that in a week we’ll already have definite action plan. Besides we’re still in contact with Ola Afolabi regarding the possible bout for the interim WBO champion title”.

There are several strong Russian boxers in cruiserweight division (Alexander Alexeev, Grigoriy Drozd, Olympics champion Rahim Chahkiev) but according to Hrunov they will try to avoid any bouts with their compatriots, if possible. Still the manager thinks that Russians, and especially Lebedev, have good prospects in the division.