By Vadin Pushkin, photos by Ruslan Kolesnikov

Undefeated puncher Murat Gassiev says his training camp was top notch for his world title shot on Saturday night at the Khodynka Ice Palace in Moscow.

Gassiev will finally get his mandatory crack at IBF/WBA cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev. Gassiev is advised by Al Haymon and fights under the Premier Boxing Champions banner. Lebedev's promoter is the leading man in Russia, Andrey Ryabinsky, of World of Boxing.

Gassiev is trained by Abel Sanchez, who is currently best known for his work with middleweight king Gennady Golovkin. Lebedev is handled by Hall of Fame coach Freddie Roach, who works with Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto and many others.

Earlier this year, Lebedev pulled off one of his most impressive victories with a two round destruction of Victor Emilio Ramirez to unify the WBA/IBF world titles before a frenzied crowd in Moscow, Russia.

The victory raised the 36-year-old's record to 29 wins (22 by knockout) and two defeats. Gassiev is one of Russia's most promising up and coming boxers. In his last fight, he had very scary knockout of Jordan Shimmell. The 22-year-old Gassiev, who is promoted by Warriors Boxing in the United States, has a record of 23 wins (17 by KO) and no losses.

During a recent interview, another Russian fighter, former world champion Sergey Kovalev, explained his dissatisfaction while training under Sanchez. In the early part of his career, he was trained by Sanchez - but eventually left to current coach John David Jackson. According to Kovalev, he was largely ignored as Sanchez gave Golovkin the bulk of his attention.

Gassiev has not had that same experience. He's very satisfied with the training camps held with Sanchez.

"With Abel we've worked with him for the last two years. Regarding what Kovalev said, that's his business. I do not know what happened between them. For me, Abel is a good fit as a trainer. I like working with him. For this fight he was preparing me, he showed me different tactics. I never noticed anything like this. I never saw him devoting more time to someone else [during our camps]. Before I left to fly over he wished me luck. Abel is flying to Moscow and he will be in my corner during the fight," said Gassiev.