I'm not a big boxrec fan, but its disturbing that they rate Lebedev 7th in Russia among active CW's from that country alone.
Boxrec's rankings are based on the workings of a virus riddled computer. They've got a lot of decent cruisers in Russia to be fair. Drozd, Tokarev, Alexeev, Brudov.
Sorry Mac my predictions seem to go tits up recently.....Khan will have to box clever me-thinks though.
I am kind of just messing around :tong, this outcomes is working on Dr.Roach plan of going to the body, after Khan started landing a few early to the body, by 5 or 6 it starts taking its toll. One thing I will point out is we know Kotelnik's power and speed at 140, What will Khan's power be like at this weight?. Adding any weight/power to his already fast hand speed could have great results.:think
Kotelniks making a stupid mistake by starting slow, it will just give khan confidence and khan always starts off a bit jerky and arkward, and gets into rhythm around round 5 and becomes a machine. Kotelnik will be wanting khan to get tired but because of his work with roach he will just keep the punches going, khans confidence growing and believing in his own hype. Rounds 6-9 are a bit like barerra-khan minus the cut, kotelnik not even getting off the punches and looks like a deer in the headlights, round 10 comes and khan flurries kotelnik (who at this points face is a mess) and kotelnik takes a knee. Ref stops it TKO round 10.
Desperately want Khan to win. But the closer the fight gets, and an accumulation of articles I have read/videos seen, I am getting a nasty feeling that Kotelnik will win via stoppage. Hope I'm wrong, but that's my gut feeling now.. Really hope Khan fights sensibly, which if he does, he has every chance of winning this fight.
Khan doesn't really have the kind of power to stop such a tough, skilled opponent like Kotelnik but has the speed and guile to win easily on points.
I wasn't sure about this fight, but having seen the weigh-in today, I reckon Khan is going to beat this s*it out of Kotelnik. 12 rounds. Khan's workrate, foot speed and reach advantage will be too much for the robotic Kotelnik. Looking forward to tomorrow night!