Beibut Shumenov

Shumenov vs. Campillo, 2010

On 15 August 2009 and with only eight professional bouts on his record, he received a shot at the WBA light-heavyweight title when he took on the 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 (MD). A rematch took place on 9 January 2010, with the result being reversed with Shumenov being declared the winner by what was considered an extremely controversial split decision (SD).[4] With this victory he became the quickest man ever to win a world title in the light-heavyweight division, beating the record of fifteen 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 (UD) against the previously unbeaten Viacheslav Uzelkov. Shumenov then arranged to have a unification fight with the then WBO champion Jürgen Brähmer, with the fight scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan on 8 January 2011. However, 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 sixth round.

He successfully defended his title in Las Vegas on 29 July 2011 against former Contender star Danny Santiago[7] and again on 2 June 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 on 14 December 2013.[10]

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

Shumenov defeated BJ Flores by a UD for WBA interim 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 for much of the night. Shumenov began ramping up his offense in round eight, throwing combinations and taking advantage of a tiring Flores. With ten seconds left to go in the fight, Flores landed a punishing right hand that sent Shumenov careening into the ropes. Flores didn’t have enough time to take advantage of the opportunity and inflict more damage on a suddenly vulnerable Shumenov, resulting in a UD victory for Shumenov.[12]

In June 2017, Shumenov retired at the age of 33 because of an eye injury.[13] This retirement would be short-lived, as he returned in July 2018 to win back the vacant WBA (Regular) cruiserweight title.