The 35 year-old, who has now lost just once in 39 contests, out-worked the seasoned champion for the majority of the contest on home territory to take a 119-108 (twice) and 118-109 decision on the judges scorecards.
With the victory, Drozd is now undefeated in eight years since losing in five rounds to Firat Arslan in Stuttgart, Germany and becomes a world champion on the back of a spell as the European title holder.
On the undercard, Denis Lebedev made light work of Pawel Koldziej to keep a firm grip on his WBA version at 200lbs after scoring a knockout win in just two rounds to make a successful first defence.
Lebedev, also 35, was handed the belt after ex-foe Guillermo Jones was found to have tested positive for a banned substance and had previously been out of the ring for sixteen months until his latest statement triumph.
Also on the bill in Russia, Andrey Knyazev stopped Shalva Jomardashvili in four rounds to push his record to 11-1, whilst the latter dropped to 37-9-2 after going down to a third stoppage defeat.
Phil Jay is Editor of WBN. An Auxiliary member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow on Twitter @PhilDJay.
