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In a vicious two-way slugfest, Guillermo Jones regained his WBA cruiserweight crown tonight by knocking out reigning champion Denis Lebedev in the 11th round of their contest at Crocus City Hall, Moscow.
Having lost his WBA belt due to inactivity, the 41 year old Guillermo Jones, of Panama, came into Moscow determined to get it back from 33 year old Lebedev, of Chekhov, Russia, and the bout was laced with action starting in the first round.
The 6’4 Jones towered over the 5’11 Lebedev, using his heavy jab to keep the smaller man at bay but all too often Jones decided to slug it out, giving up his height.
On many occasions, Jones reached for Lebedev, over-extending himself and going off balance when he missed. Lebedev took advantage of such opportunities and planted heavy shots point blank on Jones but the Panamanian showed an iron chin in taking the punches well.
The jab of Guillermo Jones produced damage to Lebedev’s eye early on and the taller man focused successfully on worsening the laceration for the entire bout.
Jones used his entire arsenal, landing right hands, uppercut and hooks as the contest wore on but also showed a leaky defense, eating a great deal of leather from Lebedev as well.
This was a war of attrition and Jones, who could take the punishment better, wrested control from Lebedev, who had enjoyed good rounds at the bout’s midway point.
By the later rounds, Jones was hammering Lebedev, who was down to one eye and exhausted, falling from the accumulated damage and counted out at 1:54 of the eleventh.
Guillermo Jones extends his win streak to eight fights, improving to 39-3-2 (31), while Lebedev loses for the first time since 2010, dropping to 25-2 (19).
The undercard saw WBA heavyweight champ Alexander Povetkin, 26-0 (18), halt previously undefeated challenger Andrezej Wawrzyk, 27-1 (13), in three rounds.
Wawrzyk’s previous experience against record-building competition had done little to prepare him to face a world class fighter and it wasn’t long before Povetkin was knocking the Pole around the ring.
Wawrzyk was down in the second and a couple of times in the third, before being knocked out at 2:28 of the third.
Povetkin will reportedly now get the long-awaited chance to face World Champion Wladimir Klitschko in October at a stadium in Moscow.
