Beibut Shumenov

From Kazakhstan Encyclopedia

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Beibut Shumenov (born 19 August 1983) is a Kazakhstani professional boxer. He is a two-weight world champion, having held the WBA (Regular) cruiserweight title since 2016, and previously the WBA light heavyweight title from 2010 to 2014.

Early life

Shumenov’s mother was a schoolteacher and his father was a chief accountant. Both worked long hours and Shumenov was left with two aunts to look after him. Shumenov nearly died as a baby, after severe complications from consuming spoiled milk while in the care of his aunts. Even though he eventually recovered, the lingering effects of his health scare stuck with him throughout childhood.[1]

Shumenov developed a love for combat sports while watching Bruce Lee films and began practicing numerous martial arts disciplines as he matured.[2]

As a young man Shumenov earned a law degree and clerked for a judge at the same time he was honing his skills as a fighter.[2]

Amateur career

Shumenov represented Kazakhstan in the 2004 Summer Olympics. His results were:

  • Defeated Aleksy Kuziemski (Poland) 34-22
  • Lost to Ihsan Yildirim Tarhan (Turkey) 19-27

He qualified for the Athens Games by winning the gold medal at the 2004 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Puerto Princesa, Philippines. In the final he defeated PR of China's Lei Yuping.

Professional career

Shumenov moved to the United States and based himself in Las Vegas where he turned professional in March 2007. In his debut in North Carolina, Shumenov defeated Walter Edwards with a knockout in the first round. He followed this up with another two knockout wins within 4 months.

In March 2008, Shumenov returned to Kazakhstan to fight American Donnell Wiggins for the vacant WBC Asian and interim PABA light heavyweight titles. Shumenov quickly dispatched the experienced Wiggins with a second-round knockout and the next month beat former US national Golden Gloves champion Lavell Finger in the first round to add the vacant WBO Asia Pacific title to his WBC Asian and interim PABA titles.

Shumenov's most high-profile fight came in August 2008 when he faced former world champion Montell Griffin in Chimkent, Kazakhstan to defend his regional WBC and WBO titles. Shumenov was taken to the scorecards for the first time in his career but won the fight clearly winning every round on all three judges cards.

Shumenov was targeting a fight with then WBO World Champion Zsolt Erdei.[3]

WBA light heavyweight champion

File:Beibut Shumenov vs. Gabriel Campillo (2).jpg
Shumenov fighting against Gabriel Campillo in 2010 rematch

On 15 August 2009 and only 8 professional bouts on his record Shumenov received a shot at the WBA belt when he took on the Spaniard Gabriel Campillo. The fight took place in Shumenov's home country of Kazakhstan and resulted in the first loss of his career when Campillo was declared the winner by majority decision. A rematch took place on 9 January 2010, with the result being reversed this time and Shumenov declared the winner by what was considered an extremely controversial split decision.[4] With this victory Shumenov became the quickest man ever to win a world title in the light heavyweight division, beating the record of 15 fights set by Jeff Harding in 1989.[5]

Shumenov made the first defense of his title on 23 July 2010 when he won a unanimous decision against the previously undefeated Viacheslav Uzelkov. Shumenov then arranged to have a unification fight with the then WBO champion Jürgen Brähmer, the fight was scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan 8 January 2011. However just days before the fight was due to take place Brähmer left Kazakhstan and returned to Germany, citing illness as his reason for dropping out of the fight.[6] In his place former middleweight world champion William Joppy stepped in at short notice, and was knocked out by Shumenov in the 6th round.

He successfully defended his title in Las Vegas on 29 July 2011 against former Contender star Danny Santiago[7] and again on June 2, 2012 in Las Vegas against Enrique Ornelas.[8]

Shumenov was promoted to WBA Super champion [9] and retained the WBA Super and IBA Light Heavyweight titles against Tomáš Kovács, a boxer from the Slovak Republic, on December 14, 2013.[10]

Shumenov fought Bernard Hopkins in a unification bout on April 19, 2014, losing his WBA (Super) and IBA Light Heavyweight titles.

WBA interim cruiserweight champion

Shumenov defeated BJ Flores by a unanimous decision for interim WBA Cruiserweight title at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on 25 July 2015 in a Premier Boxing Champions bout broadcast live on NBCSN.[11] Flores pressed the action throughout the fight, serving as the aggressor much of the night. Shumenov began ramping up his offense in Round 8, throwing combinations and taking advantage of a tiring Flores. With 10 seconds left to go in the fight, Flores landed a punishing right that sent Shumenov careening into the ropes. Flores didn’t have enough time, though, to take advantage of the opportunity to inflict more damage on a suddenly vulnerable Shumenov, resulting in a unanimous decision victory for Shumenov.[12]

Professional boxing record

Template:BoxingRecordSummary

Template:Abbr Result Record Opponent Type Round, time Date Location Notes
19 Template:Yes2Win 17–2 Template:Flagicon Junior Anthony Wright TKO 10 (12), Template:Small 21 May 2016 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
18 Template:Yes2Win 16–2 Template:Flagicon BJ Flores UD 12 25 Jul 2015 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
17 Template:Yes2Win 15–2 Template:Flagicon Bobby Thomas Jr. Template:Abbr 5 (8), Template:Small 13 Dec 2014 Template:Flagicon Template:Small
16 Template:No2Loss 14–2 Template:Flagicon Bernard Hopkins SD 12 19 Apr 2014 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
15 Template:Yes2Win 14–1 Template:Flagicon Tomáš Kovács TKO 3 (12), Template:Small 14 Dec 2013 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
14 Template:Yes2Win 13–1 Template:Flagicon Enrique Ornelas UD 12 2 Jun 2012 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
13 Template:Yes2Win 12–1 Template:Flagicon Danny Santiago TKO 9 (12), Template:Small 29 Jul 2011 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
12 Template:Yes2Win 11–1 Template:Flagicon William Joppy KO 6 (12), Template:Small 8 Jan 2011 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
11 Template:Yes2Win 10–1 Template:Flagicon Vyacheslav Uzelkov UD 12 23 Jul 2010 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
10 Template:Yes2Win 9–1 Template:Flagicon Gabriel Campillo Template:Abbr 12 29 Jan 2010 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
9 Template:No2Loss 8–1 Template:Flagicon Gabriel Campillo Template:Abbr 12 15 Aug 2009 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
8 Template:Yes2Win 8–0 Template:Flagicon Byron Mitchell TKO 4 (12), Template:Small 9 May 2009 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
7 Template:Yes2Win 7–0 Template:Flagicon Epifanio Mendoza UD 10 13 Dec 2008 Template:Flagicon Template:Small
6 Template:Yes2Win 6–0 Template:Flagicon Montell Griffin Template:Abbr 12 2 Aug 2008 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
5 Template:Yes2Win 5–0 Template:Flagicon Lavell Finger KO 1 (12), Template:Small 22 Apr 2008 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
4 Template:Yes2Win 4–0 Template:Flagicon Donnell Wiggins KO 2 (12), Template:Small 10 Apr 2008 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small
3 Template:Yes2Win 3–0 Template:Flagicon Shannon Miller TKO 4 (6), Template:Small 21 Mar 2008 Template:Flagicon Template:Small
2 Template:Yes2Win 2–0 Template:Flagicon Cedric Howard Template:Abbr 1 (4), Template:Small 22 Feb 2008 Template:Flagicon Template:Small
1 Template:Yes2Win 1–0 Template:Flagicon Walter Edwards Template:Abbr 1 (4), Template:Small 17 Nov 2007 Template:Flagicon Template:Small Template:Small

References

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External links

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