By Luke Furman

Former World Boxing Council (WBC) cruiserweight world champion Grigory Drozd of Russia had decided to complete his professional boxing career.

Drozd had his last fight in May 2015, after which, due to countless injuries, he was unable to conduct a mandatory defense against Congolese slugger Ilungi Makabu.

The WBC in March 2016 appropriated the status of Drozd to "champion in recess" and gave the right to secure a mandatory world title shot upon returning to th sport.

Makubu would go on to fight Tony Bellew for the vacant WBC title - and the Liverpool boxer would knock him out.

Drozd had often discussed the possibility of returning to the ring to gain an immediate shot at Bellew, but he never fully recovered from his injuries and would often feel discomfort when he would make attempts to hold a full training camp.

In the professional ring, the 38-year-old Drozd held 41 fights, having packed in 40 wins (28 by knockout) with one defeat.

After stopping Darnell Wilson in July 2009, he was away from the ring until March 2011.

He managed to capture the WBC world title in September 2014 with a dominant decision over Krzysztof Wlodarczyk of Poland. And he also held the EBU crown after a TKO win over then undefeated Mateusz Masternak in 2013.

"Dear friends, fans of boxing, today has become a very important day. I made a very important decision for myself: I, Grigory Drozd, world boxing champion, officially declare that my sports career is finished. I want to say a big thank you to my coach Sergey Vasiliev, who was with me all the way from start to finish. I want to thank my second coach Vitaly Miller, my physical training coach Volkov Vasily, the masseur Sergei Goncharenko and my manager Anton Zhdanov," said Drozd.

"I want to thank my promoters - it's German Titov, my first promoter, Vladimir Khryunov, with whom we had three fights, and of course, the company 'The World of Boxing' and Andrei Ryabinsky - this individual gave me the opportunity to realize my dreams, to reach the highest step of the pedestal - I became a world champion."

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.