By Keith Idec

Abel Sanchez expects fireworks when Murat Gassiev challenges Denis Lebedev for the IBF cruiserweight title Saturday in Moscow.

Sanchez – who trains the bigger, younger Gassiev – likened this bout between powerful Russians to one of the biggest fights in which Sanchez has been involved.

“It’s a great fight,” Sanchez said. “I look at this fight as the kind of fight that I had when Terry Norris fought Ray Leonard back in 1991. It was the older guy, who had a lot of tough fights and was a great champion, fighting the young stud, 23 years old. Terry was 23 back then. Gassiev is 23 years old. He’s a good fighter. I said a year ago that he’s the next Golovkin coming out of my gym. I still believe that.

“I think that Lebedev-Gassiev is gonna be a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate, that type of fight, because Lebedev doesn’t go anywhere. Lebedev’s gonna be right there. They’re gonna fight.”

Sanchez hopes Gassiev produces a career-changing performance the way Norris did, but admits he doesn’t quite know what to expect from Gassiev (23-0, 17 KOs, 1 NC) in what will mark a significant step up in competition.

The 37-year-old Lebedev (29-2, 22 KOs) has plenty of championship experience (7-2 in world title fights) and victories over aged American stars Roy Jones Jr. (10th-round knockout) and James Toney (12-round unanimous decision).

“Hopefully my young stud won’t be scared of the situation,” Sanchez said, “because there’s gonna be 16,000 people there in Moscow, which is Lebedev’s hometown, and the older guy [could use] his experience to beat us. If that doesn’t happen, I think we’re gonna be treated to a ‘Fight of the Year’ type of candidate.”

Lebedev’s WBA “super” cruiserweight title might not be at stake in this bout because his team petitioned the WBA for an exception to make this a WBA non-title fight. The WBA is expected to rule on that matter sometime Thursday.

Kazakhstan’s Beibut Shumenov (17-2, 11 KOs), the WBA’s world cruiserweight champ, is due a mandatory shot at Lebedev. Gassiev, the WBA’s sixth-ranked cruiserweight contender, also is the No. 2-ranked IBF contender for its cruiserweight championship, which will be at stake.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.