Flanagan aiming to flatten Lebedev and gatecrash World Boxing Super Series

The cruiserweight division is fast heating up with the World Boxing Super Series announcing this week that former heavyweight contender Mike Perez would be filling the last remaining spot in the eight man bracket-style elimination tournament. The Comosa-promoted series will see four undefeated world titleholders in WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk, IBF champion Murat Gassiev, WBC champion Mairis Briedis and WBA “regular” champion Yunier Dorticos competing against leading contenders Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Marco Huck, Dmitry Kudryashov and Perez. To put the quality of this tournament in perspective, five of the eight participants are rated in The Ring magazine’s top ten cruiserweights.

The one glaring omission from the competition is WBA “super” champion Denis Lebedev, who has held one version or another of the world title for almost six years.

But maybe that’s not so bad.

Back in the late 1960s a similar tournament was held to determine a replacement champion for the politically-banished Muhammad Ali. An undefeated 24-year-old kid with an Olympic gold medal around his neck called Frazier listened to an old man called Futch who suggested that he boycott the 1967 WBA Heavyweight Elimination Tournament. This allowed Smokin’ Joe further time to develop his identity as a fighter, at his own pace, while allowing the eight other contenders to bash each other’s brains out and letting Joe feast on the remains. The tactical move proved to be a masterstroke. Smokin’ Joe Frazier fought the tournament winner Jimmy Ellis for his WBA crown at Madison Square Garden in February 1970. Frazier was 26-years-old at the time and in his physical prime. He wiped the floor with Ellis, sending him to the canvas twice in the fourth round with his patented left hook. Ellis didn’t come out for the fifth.

Can the veteran Lebedev repeat this feat?

Not if Mark ‘Bam Bam’ Flanagan has anything to say about it.

The 27-year-old Aussie is vying to become the second Queenslander in a week to upset the oddsmakers by winning a boxing world title against an older, more experienced champion when he takes on Lebedev for WBA title at DIVS in Ekaterinburg, Russia this Sunday night.

Newly-minted WBO welterweight champion Jeff ‘The Hornet’ Horn came out before his title winning effort last weekend to say that Flanagan would be hard to beat if he believes in himself and lets his hands go.

“Mark’s a very good boxer with a KO in either hand,” Horn told the Courier Mail. “He has to go in against Lebedev believing he can do it and let those big shots go. It would be fantastic for Queensland to have two world boxing champions in a couple of weeks.”