By Erik Schmidt: On Saturday night, undefeated light heavyweight contender Beibut Shumenov (8-0, 6 KO’s) will be challenging WBA light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo (18-2, 6 KO’s) at the Sport Complex “Daulet,” in Astana, Kazakhstan. Shumenov, 25, will be attempting to capture Campillo’s title after only two years as a pro. Although Shumenov has little experience in the pro ranks, he has extensive amateur experience and fought in the 2004 Olympics for Kazakhstan.
In the past year, Shumenov has beaten Donnell Wiggins, Montell Griffin, Epifanio Mendoza and Byron Mitchell and has looked very impressive in each of the fights. Campillo, 30, recently defeated a weight drained Hugo Hernan Garay to take away his WBA light heavyweight title in a 12 round majority decision in June 2009.
Garay, who reportedly had to take off an extensive amount of weight in the weeks leading up to the fight to make the 175 light heavyweight limit, controlled the action in the first six rounds. However, in the second half of the fight, Garay tired out and lost control over the fight to Campillo the rest of the way. In the past, Campillo has been defeated by Vyacheslav Uzelkov and Karo Murat.
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There are reports from the German news organization BILD-Zeitung that World Boxing Association (WBA) middleweight champion Felix Sturm (33-2-1, 14 KO’s) is quitting his contract with the German promotional company Universum. “I will never fight for Universum again” says Sturm, 30. The three-time middleweight champion Sturm has a contract with Universum that reportedly expires on November 16th.
However, Universum is saying that they have option which extends Sturm’s contract for an additional three years. However, Sturm’s manager has had the contract checked out by several law firms, all of whom have said that the contact isn’t valid.
It’s unclear why Sturm wants to leave Universum. Sturm fought in the 2000 Olympics for Germany, and turned pro in 2001. Sturm captured the WBO middleweight title in 2003 with a win over Hector Javier Velazco. However, Sturm lost the title a year later in a controversial 12 round decision loss to Oscar De La Hoya in June 2004, a fight in which Sturm appeared to win the bout by at least four rounds according to many boxing fans.
Two years later, Sturm captured the WBA middleweight title with as win over Maselino Masoe. Sturm then lost the title in his first defense to Spaniard Javier Castillejo by a 10th round TKO loss in July 2006. Sturm recaptured his WBA with a controversial 12 round decision over Castillejo in April 2007.
Since then, Sturm has defended the WBA belt seven times, beating a number of dull optional opponents and fighting to a controversial 12 round draw American Randy Griffin in October 2007. Sturm’s title defenses have been lacking in excitement due to the absence of any big named opponents. There was talk recently of Sturm possibly fighting WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, but that never materialized unfortunately.
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Turkish heavyweight Sinan Samil Sam (31-4, 16 KO’s) will be delaying his comeback due to a case of gall stones. Sam, 35, a two-time Euro heavyweight champion, will have to have surgery to take care of the gall stones. Sam’s promoter Ahmet Oner expects Sam to be ready to fight again in December. There was talk of Sam fighting either Australian Kali Meehan or Italian Paolo Vidoz.
Last year, in July 2008, Sam defeated Vidoz by a 12 round majority decision in Turkey for the vacant European heavyweight title. Sam has previously been beaten by Juan Carlos Gomez, Luan Krasniqi, Oleg Maskaev and most recently Oliver McCall.
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