Tonight at The Ice Palace in Moscow, unbeaten challenger Murat Gassiev scored a 12-round split decision victory over defending IBF cruiserweight champ Denis Lebedev. The new champion, now 24-0(17) prevailed via scores of 116-112 and 116-111, the third judge had it 114-113 for Lebedev, who is now 29-3(22).
A very tough, hard-fought battle, tonight’s main event saw both men take plenty of punches. Lebedev, the older man by a substantial 14 years at age 37, used his underrated boxing skills when he could, using plenty of movement and pumping out his sharp southpaw jab. Gassiev, so dangerous a puncher, stalked his man and though he was guilty of being one-paced at times, the challenger was both catching Lebedev with shots and making the older man work.
