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Boxing Hot Takes: Julius Indongo Wins BIG & Murat Gassiev Becomes the New Cruiserweight Champion Sort Of!

jiBy BJ “Warhammer” Proctor

Just last week the boxing world was buzzing, the talk of how big the final month of the 2016 year could potentially be. Here comes only the 3rd day, and the month of December started off with tremendous fireworks! Two title fights, one very important in the cruiserweight division, and both titles change hands.

140 pound IBF champion, Eduard Troyanovsky became the latest victim to the old boxing adage, it only takes one punch! Huge underdog, Julius Indongo blasted Troyanovsky 40 seconds into their bout, with a crushing left hand. Troyanovsky never saw the punch coming, and his reign as champion has become a short one. At the age of 36, it just may be too little too late for the former champion. This is a disappointment to the fans who had hoped for a future unification bout with 140 pound king, Terence Crawford. Let’s hope for boxing’s sake, Indongo is a fighting champion, and a 2017 bout can be secured with Crawford, sooner rather than later.

For the rabid hardcore fans, the overshadowed cruiserweight division had a great showing from two of its best! Although this was a title fight, and many questions were answered this night, we also had a perplexing situation occur. Denis Lebedev, who was the current IBF and WBA champion, was allowed to keep his WBA belt and not have it on the line during the contest. The only belt up for grabs would be the IBF cruiserweight title. The strangest aspect of all this, is that a decision was not made until just days before the fight. Win or lose, Lebedev would keep one of his 2 championship belts. It must not go unnoticed that Lebedev was ranked number 1 by most accounts, and most importantly by the Ring top 10 at cruiserweight.

Considered the best in the division, this was a huge challenge for the 23 year old, undefeated Murat Gassiev. Well, Gassiev answered the call and stamped his name as one of the fighters to be feared at cruiserweight. Gassiev won a great contest in which his win was never in doubt. The bout was judged a split decision, but the fact that one judge had it for Lebedev is laughable. Gassiev not only became the IBF champion, but he defeated the number 1 rated cruiser, and is now a force to be reckoned with. Gassiev answered every question, regarding his power, chin, and his ability to fight the top rated fighters in his division.

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