Jamaican cruiserweight Richard Hall sees his upcoming bout with Russia’s Grigory Drozd as a stepping stone to a title fight with WBA champion Denis Lebedev, Lebedev’s promoter Vladimir Hryunov told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
Hall, who held the WBA title briefly in 1998, will face Drozd in Moscow February 8.
“Hall is very ambitious by nature and regards the upcoming fight as a modest obstacle on the way to a match with Lebedev,” Hryunov said.
“The seriousness of his intent is indicated by the fact that he’s changed the time of his arrival in Moscow. Earlier he was planning to fly in February 6, two days before the fight, but now he’s pushed the date of his arrival back several days to February 3.”
The 40-year-old Hall has a career 30 wins, all but two of them by knockout, and eight defeats.
Drozd is eight years younger and has never held a world title. He has won 33 professional bouts, with only ten of those going the distance, and suffered just one defeat, to Germany’s Firat Arslan in 2006.
Hryunov is also the promoter for light welterweight Russian Khabib Allakhverdiev, who is undefeated in 15 fights and currently holds the WBC Asian Boxing Council title.
Hryunov said that he had received an offer from US promoter Kathy Duva to co-promote Allakhverdiev, but did not state his opinion on the offer.
Lebedev won the WBA interim cruiserweight title in November with a unanimous points win over former three division world champions James Toney in Moscow.
