By Rob Smith: Russian cruiserweight contender Denis Lebedev (23-1, 17 KO’s) will be facing an opponent with power perhaps even better than his own in his fight against Shawn Cox (16-1, 15 KO’s) on Wednesday, April 4th for the interim WBA cruiserweight title at the Crocus City Hall, in Myakkinno, Russia. Lebedev has mostly been the bigger puncher in his fights, but the 37-year-old Cox may have more power with his left hand power shots. However, that doesn’t mean that Cox is going to win.
I fully expect Lebedev to destroy this guy in or two rounds because he is way too inexperienced against quality opposition to beat a fighter like Lebedev. Additionally, Cox’s southpaw style, which is usually a big advantage for him against right hand fighters, won’t be any advantage against Lebedev, because he’s also a southpaw. Lebedev can punch with big power with either hand, both on the inside and outside. Cox is just a big left hand bomber and he doesn’t have an inside game nor does he have much in the way of defensive skills.
Cox stunned a lot of people when he was able to stop former WBC cruiserweight champion Wayne Braithwaite (24-5, 20 KO’s) in a 1st round knockout last February. It’s true that Braithwaite hasn’t looked all that good since 2004 and had been beaten in four out of his last seven fights going into the bout, but he wasn’t destroyed by anyone the way that Cox did to him in his easy 1st round blowout. Braithwaite did hurt Cox in the round with a hard right hand but he wasn’t able to add to it.
Lebedev will move on and face WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck if he can get by Cox. Lebedev lost a 12 round split decision to Huck in 2010, and he wants to fight him again to pick up the WBO title.
As long as Lebedev can avoid Cox’s big left hand shots, he’ll do alright. He just needs to get out of the way of a handful so that he can land his own big shot to take Cox out quickly.