(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / Mayweather Promotions) By Jim Dower: Interim WBA cruiserweight champion Beibut Shumenov (16-2, 10 KO’s) successfully weighed in on Friday at 199lbs for his fight against #11 WBA Junior Wright (15-1-1, 12 KOs) in their fight for the WBA World cruiserweight title on Saturday night on Showtime Championship Boxing at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wright, 29, weighed in at 199.5lbs. Former WBA World cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev is now the WBA Super World cruiserweight champion. The WBA has two champions in the cruiserweight division for some reason.
Shumenov, 32, recently beat BJ Flores by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision last year in July 2015. It was a good performance from Shumenov, as he revealed a completely different fighting style from how he previously used to fight two years ago when he was easily beaten by Bernard Hopkins by a 12 round unanimous decision in April 2014. Shumenov was more of a pot shot fighter back then, and that style was not effective when he stepped it up against better fighters.
The World Boxing Association is giving Shumenov a huge break by having him fight #11 WBA Wright rather than someone like Olesandry Usyk or Marco Huck.
Shumenov was beaten by Gabriel Campillo in 2009 by a close 12 round decision. The two fighters fought each other a second time in 2010 with Shumenov winning a controversial 12 round decision to win the WBA light heavyweight title. Shumenov then held onto the WBA title for the next four years in successfully defending it six times against weak opposition. When Shumenov finally fought a good opponent in Hopkins, he was easily beaten.
Shumenov has a good chance of winning the WBA title on Saturday against Wright because he’s a very flawed fighter. Shumenov’s problem will be him trying to hold onto the belt against guys like #1 WBA mandatory challenger Yunier Dorticos and #4 WBA Marco Huck. Those guys can punch and they’ll be tough outs for Shumenov, who isn’t a big puncher.
Wright was stopped in the 8th round by Rakhim Chakhkiev in May of last year. Wright has since won his last two fights against journeyman fighters Harvey Jolly (14-22-1) and Jim Franklin (10-17-2). Wright was held to a 10 round draw by Stivens Bujaj in May 2014. He was fortunate to get the draw in that fight because Bujaj appeared to do enough to deserve the victory.
It’ll be surprising if Shumenov loses this fight. He appears to be the much better fighter of the two, and he should cruise to an easy 12 round decision over Wright. Shumenov doesn’t have much punching power, but he won’t need it to beat the likes of Wright.
Beibut Shumenov 199 lbs.
Junior Wright 199 1/2 lbs.