By Vadim Pushkin
BoxingScene.com reported a few weeks ago that a deal was reached for Denis Lebedev to defend his WBA/IBF world cruiserweight titles against mandatory challenger Murat Gassiev in Moscow, Russia on Saturday, December 3.
The 37-year-old Lebedev (29-2, 22 KOs) is coming back from a career-best win, when demolished Victor Emilio Ramirez in two rounds back in May to unify the WBA/IBF world titles.
His Russian countryman Gassiev, nearly 23-years-old with a record of 23-0 with 17 KOs, also fought in May and scored a brutal first round knockout of Jordan Shimmell in the first.
The matchup will also pit a very interesting battle of corners. The two Russian boxers are trained by two of the best coaches in the United States. Lebedev is trained by Hall of Fame coach Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, while Gassiev is trained by Abel Sanchez at Big Bear.
Gassiev views the bout as a big opportunity to explode his career to new heights in the sport.
When he was younger, he used to watch Lebedev fight on television and never anticipated that one day he would square off with him in the ring.
"I watched his fights at a time when I hadn't even fought in a professional ring. I never imagined that one day I would be meeting Denis in the ring,"Gassiev said. "Denis is a boxer at a very high level. Frankly, it's career defining fight for me. And I'm heading there with all of the responsibility and seriousness to go up against him."
"Two years ago I could have never imagined that I would be getting in the ring with one of the best fighters in my weight class. And it's not fear - it's expectation of the moment. It seems like it was just yesterday that I first saw him on television, and now I'm going out against him in the ring."
"I don't really think about how the crowd will react in my hometown. There are people who are rooting for me, there will be those who will support Denis. I think that in Moscow there will be people who are going to be rooting for me. We're two Russians. Denis, of course, is the star. I think that most of the audience will be rooting for him, but I do not mind."
"Nothing in my training process will change. There are two training sessions a day. My coach knows his job, I have full confidence in my team. I have not seen the contract [for the fight], but to be honest - for this fight money plays no role for me."