DENIS LEBEDEV KO2 ALEXANDER ALEXEEV

Everyone knew that Denis Lebedev was one tough son of a gun and an excellent fighter. Still, I don’t think that anyone could have foreseen a two-round blowout for the Russian boxer when Lebedev met Alexander Alexeev in a cruiserweight championship eliminator in Germany on Saturday.
 
The meeting of southpaws looked, on paper, like being intensely competitive. Sometimes, though, one fighter lives up to expectations and the other, in boxing parlance, doesn’t show up.
 
Alexeev boxed like a man whose mind was somewhere else in the opening round — his trainer said afterwards it was as if the fighter was alseep. Anyone who isn’t alert at all times will pay a price against Lebedev.
 
I had thought when Alexeev lost to Victor Ramirez that maybe he had underestimated his opponent and perhaps wasn’t as well prepared as he might have been. He looked, though, like a shell of a fighter when he faced Lebedev. I don’t think even Lebedev could have expected to land his left hand as easily as he was able to do in the two rounds the fight lasted. Lebedev’s jab and hook were effective, too.
 
Alexeev did manage to get his right jab working briefly in the second round but Lebedev couldn’t miss him with the hammering left hands. When Alexeev went down, face buried in the canvas, it was a pathetic sight to behold, as were his struggles to rise and his final lurch into the ropes on legs that wouldn’t hold him up.
 
Sometimes a fighter can come back from a severe stoppage defeat and become somehow stronger and steelier. Other fighters never seem able to get overcome such a setback. Alexeev, alas, falls into the latter category, although his small consolation is that he lost to a fighter who is truly formidable.