By Jim Dower: WBA World cruiserweight champion Beibut Shumenov (17-2, 11 KOs) had to get up off the deck to come back and defeat #11 WBA challenger Junior Wright (15-2-1, 12 KOs) by a 10th round knockout on Saturday night in Shumenov’s first defense of his title at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in Nevada.
The fight took place on the Erislandy Lara vs. Vanes Martirosyan card. However, it didn’t make the television portion of the broadcast on Showtime Championship Boxing.
Shumenov floored Wright in the 8th round. The fight was stopped in the 10th. Shumenov showed good punching power in getting Wright out of there.
Earlier in the contest, Wright knocked Shumenov down in the 5th round. Shumenov was able to make it out of the round and come from the knockout.
The loss for Wright was his second in his last four fights. Wright was beaten by Rakhim Chakhkiev by an 8th round knockout in May of 2015.
With this win, the 32-year-old Shumenov faces a very tough opponent in WBA Super World cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev. This is fight that Shumenov will need to use his wheels to try and win because he does not have the punching power to compete with the hard hitting southpaw Lebedev. Shumenov doesn’t match up well against Lededev, and he’s probably need to use nonstop movement for 12 rounds if he’s to have a chance of pulling off the upset. Shumenov wanted the WBA title and now he’s got it. Facing Lebedev could be a step too far for Shumenov. He’s yet to be knocked out in his career. This could be his first.
Lebedev captured the IBF cruiserweight title on Saturday night in stopping IBF champion Victor Ramirez in the 2nd round in their fight at the Khodnyka Ice Palace in Moscow, Russia.
Also on tonight’s off television card at the Cosmopolitan, cruiserweight BJ Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs) moved up to heavyweight to defeat Roberto Santos (12-4, 5 KOs) by a six round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 60-54, 60-54 and 60-54.