Denis Lebedev vs. Youri Kalenga: Winner, Scorecard and Reaction

WBA cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev retained his world title with a unanimous-decision victory over France's Youri Kalenga at the Luzhniki Arena in Moscow on Friday.

The Russian champion earned the victory in front of a home crowd, Lebedev having the better of the proceedings as the bout went all 12 rounds.

Interim champion Kalenga dropped his opponent in Round 4, but Lebedev floored the 27-year-old in Round 7 and never looked back.

The judges scored the bout 115-112, 115-112, 116-111, per Fightnews.com.

Denis Tyrin/Associated Press

Kalenga put up quite a fight against the world champion in front of a partisan Moscow crowd, showing his enormous strength and troubling Lebedev midway through proceedings.

The knockdown from Kalenga in the fourth round was somewhat dubious, Lebedev tripping over his opponent's foot after being knocked off balance, but as BoxingScene.com's Jake Donovan notes, the challenger was more than holding his own:

"

Rough start early for Kalenga but has come on strong in past 3 rounds. With questionable KD in rd 4, I have Kalenga up by 1 at halfway pt

— Jake Donovan (@JakeNDaBox) April 10, 2015"

However, the 35-year-old Lebedev changed the momentum in Round 7 as he sent the Congo-born Kalenga to the canvas with a clean knockdown, a fierce blow to the chin.

Kalenga's immense strength was not enough in the end, as Lebedev showed great skill in a close fight.

Kalenga's five-fight winning streak comes to an end—his record now stands at 21-2—but he was certainly in with a chance at the halfway stage, he just could not convert.

As for Lebedev, he came through the challenge strongly at the end, but Kalenga made him work for it. The Russian's pre-fight predictions of a tough night were certainly proved correct, per AlexeySukachev of BoxingScene.com:

"

I clearly expect a tough fight because of the fact Kalenga is stronger than my previous opponent (Pawel Kolodziej). I like his mentality, his desire to come in and fight whenever he is forced to. He reminds me of Rakhim Chakhkiev. However, Rakhim is a southpaw, and Youri is a different story.

"

Lebedev's previous fight had seen him triumph over Polish Kolodziej, and he moves to 27-2 with 20 knockouts after his latest victory.

English boxer Tony Bellew speculated as to who Lebedev might take on next after Friday's entertaining clash ended in victory for the Russian:

He showed great stamina in the second half of the fight and dominated from Round 7, standing up well to a bulldozing effort from Kalenga.

After recovering well with two wins following his controversial and brutal defeat to Guillermo Jones in 2013, Lebedev will now surely look to extend his winning streak with another strong performance in his next challenge.