By Jeff Aranow: Former IBF/WBA/WBC cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev (31-2, 23 KOs) made easy work of little known 30-year-old Hizni Altunkaya (30-3, 17 KOs) in defeating him by a 3rd round knockout on Friday night in their fight at heavyweight at the Traktor Sport Palace in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Fighting for the first time in 14 months since beating Mark Flanagan in July 2017, the 39-year-old Lebedev flattened Altunkaya with a nice left hand counter that sent him down hard on the canvas. Although the 30-year-old Altunkaya looked like he could have gotten up to beat the count, he stayed down and was counted out by the referee Yury Koptsev. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:02. Altunkaya was also knocked down in round 2 after getting hit hard by a left to the head by Lebedev.
For a fighter with a 30-1 record going into tonight’s contest, Altunkaya looked shockingly bad against a flabby looking Lebedev. Altunkaya was out of his league against the southpaw Lebedv, even though he was nine years younger and appeared to be in much better shape. Lebedev weighed in at 212 pounds at the weigh-in last Thursday, and he looked badly out of shape compared to the form that he had in his previous fight against Flanagan last year in July.
Lebedev has been taking it easy since that fight, and it appears he hasn’t missed too many meals. If Lebedev is going to try and campaign at heavyweight, he’s going to need to put on some muscle over that coat of fat because he looks too flabby for him to make a mark in the heavyweight division. The win for Lebedev was his second in a row since losing to Murat Gassiev by a 12 round unanimous decision.
The German Altunkaya had lost his previous fight to Beibut Shumenov by a 9th round stoppage in a bout for the vacant WBA World cruiserweight title last July.
In other boxing results on Friday’s card, undefeated World Boxing Council Silver lightweight champion Zaur Abdullah (10-0, 6 KOs) defeated 34-year-old former light welterweight world title challenger Hank Lundy (29-7-1, 14 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 115-113, 117-11 and 118-110. The loss for Lundy snaps a three-fight winning streak that he had following his 5th round knockout loss to former WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford in 2016. Abdullah didn’t show the kind of talent that would suggest that he’s going to be a threat to WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia.