Monday 17 December 2012

Denis Lebedev v Santander Silgado

Exciting Russian Cruiserweight Denis Lebedev (24-1, 18) makes the first defense of his WBA title later today as he faced unbeaten power puncher Santander Silgado (23-0, 18) in a bout that promises fireworks. Despite this bout generally being one that has gone under-the-radar I'm certainly expecting a very fun to watch bout that really could be over if you blink.

The hard hitting Lebedev got upgraded from the interim champion just a few months ago after Panamanian Guillermo Jones was eventually stripped by the WBA who had seemingly gotten bored of his antics (including pulling out of fights on a regular basis).

For many fans of the sport the Cruiserweight division has slowly become one of the top divisions in the sport thanks to the combination of exciting fights and fun to watch fighters such as Yoan Pablo Hernandez, Marco Huck and Lebedev. In fact many fan of the sport consider Lebedev to be the best of the bunch with his only loss being a very highly debated decision loss to Huck in a bout that most felt the Russian has won.

Lebedev combines genuine toughness with both power and skill. He's not the quickest guy in the division or even the biggest but his all round ability and genuinely hurtful shots have made him his name. What has also helped has been his notable scalps including former WBO champion     Enzo Maccarinelli, once top amateur Alexander Alekseev and American legends Roy Jones Jr and James Toney (both admittedly well beyond their sell by date).

Despite being 33 years old Lebedev is a young 33 with just 132 rounds under his belt though a lot of this has to do with his power which is genuinely devastating. He can score stoppages both with stunning 1-punch KO power or by grinding opponents down which helps make him a dangerous fighter, every punch he lands hurts.

With plenty known about how good Lebedev is, the real question about this fight is just how good is Santander Silgado? The American based Colombian has a very similar looking record to Lebedev with a actually a higher KO% though though sadly these have been coming at a much lower level, with Silgado actually struggling when he has stepped up to face some more established fighters. Interestingly the Colombian has had to go the distance in his last 3 fights, all in the US against limited opponents.

Sadly, as we all know with Colombians it's hard to really judge just how powerful they actually are due to inflated records from fighting at home. Oddly with Silgado we've actually seen him fighting around the world (having fought in Colombia, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Germany and the USA) however he does have a 10-0 (10) record in Colombia, as opposed to the 13-0 (8) away from the land of his birth.

If Silgado goes in to this thinking he's the puncher he'll be wrong, if he thinks he's the boxer I'd again guess that he'd be wrong. Lebedev is just better in every which way and I'd be shocked if Silgado manages to do much other than get sparked out with a KO of the year contender.

Prediction-Lebedev KO5

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