By Erik Schmidt: In a fight that was supposed to be competitive, #1 ranked WBO cruiserweight contender Denis Lededev (21-0, 16 KO’s) was much too powerful for #2 WBO ranked contender Alexander Alexeev (19-2, 17 KO’s), slicing through him like butter with power shots on Saturday night en route to stopping the former Olympian Alexeev in the 2nd round of a WBO cruiserweight title eliminator match at the the Sport- Und Kongresshall in Schwerin, Germany.

Lebedev and Alexeev, both Russian southpaws, went at it from the opening bell, trading left hands. However, it was immediately clear that Lebedev had the much better power and was hurting Alexeev with each shot. In the 2nd round, Lebedev connected with a hard left hand that put Alexeev away. The fight was stopped at 2:32 of the 2nd round.

With this win, Lebedev, 30, will now become the mandatory challenger for World Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Marco Huck. Lebedev also stopped former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli in the 3rd round last year in a fight that was never remotely competitive.

Alexeev took a number of solid left hands in the 1st round, one of which gave Alexeev a bloody nose. In between rounds, Alexeev had problems breathing his nose and it seemed like he was bothered. Around the mid point of the opening round, Alexeev took a solid left hand followed by a right hook that appeared to shake Alexeev up a little but. After those two punches, Alexeev did next to nothing until the last seconds of the round when he finally landed a few harmless jabs.

In the second round, both fighters traded equally with jabs and missed with their left hand shots. However, Lebedev ducked under a jab from Alexeev and tagged him with a powerful short left hook to the side of Alexeev’s head, knocking him to the canvas face first. At a moment, Alexeev attempted to get up but was unable to get to his feet, falling back down on the canvas. Again, Alexeev tried to get to his feet and with rubber legs, staggered across the ring and fell against the ropes in the corner. The referee then called it off at that point rather than letting Alexeev stagger around even more. Alexeev clearly wasn’t going to be able to clear his head anytime soon and even if he had continued to fight, Lebedev was going to finish him immediately. He just had too much power for Alexeev.

In a way, this fight reminded me a lot of the 2nd round knockout that heavyweight Corrie Sanders scored on Wladimir Klitschko in 2003. Like Sanders, Lebedev’s left hands were devastating for Alexeev, and there was no way, short of staying on the move, that Alexeev was going to be able to get through this fight without being knocked out. It’s surprising that Alexeev didn’t elect to move more against Lebedev. He stood in front of the powerful Lebedev and didn’t use any movement. He made it easy for him.

In other action on the card:

Eduard Gutknecht RTD 2 Michal Bilak
Marcel Meyerdiercks UD 8 Hermin Isava
Vikapita Meroro UD 6 Jevgenijs Andrejevs
Mariusz Wach KO 6 Christian Hammer
Susi Kentikian TD 3 Arely Mucino