Lebedev stops Kayode in 8th round TKO

By Boxing News - 11/04/2015 - Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E4AjqN_0Mc

By Allan Fox: WBA cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev (28-2, 21 KOs) successfully defended his title in beating the previously unbeaten #3 WBA Lateef Kayode (21-1, 16 KOs) by an 8th round knockout on Wednesday evening at the Basket-Hall Arena, in Kazan, Russia.

Lebedev, 36, knocked Kayode down three times in the fight in dropping him once in the 7th and two times in the 8th. The fight was halted after Lebedev caught a badly hurt 32-year-old Kayode with a series of big left hands to the head in the 8th, prompting referee Steve Smoger to step in and halt the fight rather than letting Lebedev drop him yet again.

Kayode was also knocked down in the 7th round from a combination from Lebedev. Kayode wasn’t too happy about the knockdown because he thought that it wasn’t legit. But after the action resumed, Lededev was able to tee off on a clearly hurt Kayode in landing with three hard right hooks to the head. Kayode could do nothing to stop the big shots.

At the start of the 8th round, Kayode looked like he was still in bad shape. This enabled Lebedev to land a left hand to the head to put him down on the canvas. Kayode didn’t even try to block the shot. He hit the canvas and looked badly hurt. Kayode barely beat referee Steve Smoger’s count in getting up at the count of 8. Kayode then slightly swayed back and forth while the referee was asking him if he was able to continue. But when the action resumed, Lededev was able to knock Kayode down once more after hitting him with two solid left hands to the head.

Smoger would have done well to stop the fight after this knockdown, because Kayode was badly hurt and unable to defend himself. After Smoger let the action resume, Lebedev was able to nail Kayode with monstrous lefts to the had while he attempted to cover up against the ropes. Lebedev was able to land 7 unanswered head shots before Steve Smoger stopped the contest. He had no choice because Kayode wasn’t fighting back at that point, and the last couple of shots snapped him head back badly.

Kayode talked to Lebedev all throughout the fight in attempting to psych him out, but Lebedev ignored his taunts and stayed focused in administering a one-way beating. Lebedev was able to tee off on Kayode with single power shots in every round to dominate the action.

In the first couple of rounds neither guy did very much. You could give Lebedev the slight end with some of the nice left hands that he was landing, but there wasn’t much action from either guy to separate them.

Starting in the 3rd round, Lebedev took control of the fight with his hard left hands and rook hooks to the head. Kayode looked frustrated that he kept getting caught with shots, but he couldn’t do anything about it due to Lebedev’s accurate shots. When Kayode did attempt to land shots, Lebedev was able to counter him with hard right hooks to the head and lefts to the body.



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