Abel Sanchez Talks Murat Gassiev Win

The cruiserweight division received another infusion of buzz today, with Murat Gassiev’s SD win over Denis Levedev in Russia.

The 23 year old landed bombs on the beyond stubbornly sturdy Lebedev, who at 37 has absorbed enough punishment to last two fighting lifetimes. Gassiev’s trainer checked in with NYF, and gave some insight into the outing.

“The young kid I told you about one year ago, won a world title tonite, 23 years old and he has a bright road ahead,” Abel Sanchez told me. “Denis Shafikov wins an opportunity to win the IBF lightweight title, Konstantinos Ponomarev wins another shutout in Las Vegas, which was already a great ending to 2016… And we are going to give it our best with Andy Ruiz Jr to win the WBO Heavyweight title next Saturday in New Zealand. In the Gassiev win, good tough fight against a great experienced champion… my hat is off to Denis Lebedev and Freddie Roach, we won but it was a great learning experience for my fighter on what lies ahead and the hard work it will take to try and equal Denis Lebedev’s success. So, did Lebedev…

..The cruiserweight division received another infusion of buzz today, with Murat Gassiev’s SD win over Denis Levedev in Russia.

The 23 year old landed bombs on the beyond stubbornly sturdy Lebedev, who at 37 has absorbed enough punishment to last two fighting lifetimes. Gassiev’s trainer checked in with NYF, and gave some insight into the outing.

“The young kid I told you about one year ago, won a world title tonite, 23 years old and he has a bright road ahead,” Abel Sanchez told me. “Denis Shafikov wins an opportunity to win the IBF lightweight title, Konstantinos Ponomarev wins another shutout in Las Vegas, which was already a great ending to 2016… And we are going to give it our best with Andy Ruiz Jr to win the WBO Heavyweight title next Saturday in New Zealand. In the Gassiev win, good tough fight against a great experienced champion… my hat is off to Denis Lebedev and Freddie Roach, we won but it was a great learning experience for my fighter on what lies ahead and the hard work it will take to try and equal Denis Lebedev’s success. So, did Lebedev (below)…

..come on in the second half? Not really come on but the experience on Lebedev’s part or lack of in my guys’ part made it look like it, we won most of the latter rounds. Because of the knockdown and I thought we won at least seven of the rounds, I would say yes the judges scores were right. I thought Denis was just trying to survive in the second part of the fight, really not trying to do anything significant, actually maybe moving to much to give himself a chance to land good shots.”come on in the second half? Not really come on but the experience on Lebedev’s part or lack of in my guys’ part made it look like it, we won most of the latter rounds. Because of the knockdown and I thought we won at least seven of the rounds, I would say yes the judges scores were right. I thought Denis was just trying to survive in the second part of the fight, really not trying to do anything significant, actually maybe moving to much to give himself a chance to land good shots.”