By Jason Kim: The hype for light heavyweight contender Beibut Shumenov (8-1, 6 KO’s) was bound to end sooner or later. Tonight, Shumenov was defeated by the light-hitting World Boxing Association light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo (19-2, 6 KO’s) in a 12-round unanimous decision at the Sport Complex “Daulet”, in Astana, Kazakhstan. The final judge’s scores were 114-112, 114-112 and 114-113, all for Campillo.

Shumenov, 25, fighting for a title after only eight fights as a pro, ran out of gas in the later rounds against the busy 30-year-old Campillo and ended up getting outworked in the 2nd half of the bout. I can’t say I was all that surprised.

I had seen Shumenov struggle with stamina issues in his previous decision victories over Epifanio Mendoza and Montell Griffin. In both of those fights, Shumenov started out well in the first six rounds but began to tire out, looking slow by the midpoint of the fight, and really drag in the last four rounds.

Against those fighters, Shumenov was able to win because of his foot movement in the later part of the fight. Campillo didn’t allow Shumenov to move around after he tired, and stayed on top of him forcing him to fight. Not much of a puncher, Shumenov found himself in a fight in which he had to match his work rate against the busy Campillo, who is known for being able to throw a massive amount of punches without tiring.

It wasn’t a fight that favored Shumenov. In the 9th round, looking very tired, Shumenov somehow dug deep enough to score a knockdown with a left to the head of Campillo. However, Campillo paid Shumenov back by dropping him with a left to the body in the 12th that put him down.

In hindsight, Shumenov probably should have had at least another 10 to 15 fights under his belt before challenging for the title. He needs to badly work on his stamina issues and develop more power. His lack of hand speed is something that Shumenov won’t be able to fix but he can at least try and work on his tendency to fade in the second half of his fights.

Shumenov looked good in many of his previous fights, but the ones in which he had to go beyond six, Shumenov looked tired and much older than his 25 years. The fact that Shumenov couldn’t beat Campillo, who is considered by many boxing experts to be the weakest of the four light heavyweight champions, doesn’t make Shumenov look all that good.

It suggests that Shumenov has a ton of work cut out for him if he wants to pick up a title in the future. Campillo doesn’t have great offensive skills, yet he was still able to beat Shumenov. That’s not a good sign for the fighter from Kazakhstan. If this had been Chad Dawson, Glen Johnson, Jean Pascal or Zsolt Erdei out there instead of Campillo, my guess is that Shumenov would have been knocked out.
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In other action, light welterweight DeMarcus Corley (35-11-1, 21 KO‘s) stopped James Kimori (11-2, 7 KO’s) in the 8th round.