By Alexey Sukachev

According to a couple of local media outlets, including "Izvestia" daily, athe long-awaited showdown between WBA cruiserweight champion Guillermo Jones (38-3-2, 30 KOs) of Panama and his mandatory challenger, WBA #1 and interim titleholder Denis Lebedev (24-1, 18 KOs) is tentatively set for December 17 at Crocus City Hall in Myakinino, Moscow, Russia. "Izvestia" cites Lebedev's manager/promoter Vladimir Hryunov as the source.

The bout was first scheduled to take place on Ocotber 27, also in Moscow, but was later re-scheduled after a meeting between Hryunov and Don King, which took place at the WBA headquarters in Panama. Meanwhile, in today's interview to "Sport-Express" daily Hryunov hasn't announced any certain dates but told local expert Alexander Belenkiy, that King is going to kick off a promotional event on November 9 in Moscow to officialy present the upcoming collision. Jones is also said to be taking on WBA #15 Andres Taylor (21-2-2, 8 KOs) as a tune-up on Oct. 27 in Venezuela.

Another interesting match-up can take its place in the undercard, according to Hryunov. Undefeated stylist Alexander Bakhtin (30-0, 11 KOs), who is the reigning IBO super bantamweight champion and ranked #3 by the WBC, #5 by the IBF and #6 by the WBA, is willing to fight Armenian Vic Darchinyan (38-5-1, 27 KOs), who is presently WBC #4, WBA #8 and IBF #9 rated 122lber, in what will be one of the biggest fights ever between ex-Soviet boxers in history.

"We have already exchanged a couple of messages with Gary Shaw, Vic's promoter. The bout is possible. Two fights (Jones-Lebedev and Bakhtin-Darchinyan) of such a scale will constitute an entirely new level of boxing events here, in Russia. We are also planning a title fight for cruiserweight star Grigoriy Drozd. I welcome everyone, and everyone will have a chance to see a truly memorable competition. Everyone will be satisfied!", was quoted Hryunov by "Sport-Express".

Team Darchinyan has also expressed some interest in fighting the newly crowned Thai WBO bantamweight champion Pungluang Sor Singyu (43-1, 28 KOs), who just stopped Filipino AJ Banal for the title this past Saturday.