Boxing News Boxing News
Five months after his first bout with Beibut Shumenov ended with a split decision victory for reigning WBA light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo, the Spaniard saw what looked to be a sure win slip through his grasp last night at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, NV.
Shumenov started strong and his greater activity carried the early rounds but southpaw Campillo began to pick off the lesser inexperienced Kazak and had evened matters by the end of the fourth with his sharp accuracy.
The fifth saw Campillo wrest away control of the bout from the challenger as Shumenov seemed to tire from his high output early in the fight. For the next four frames, Campillo battered Shumenov, landing with very little difficulty.
When Campillo slowed down by the tenth, Shumenov stepped up to regain the momentum but the last two rounds saw the champion reassert himself and cruise to what looked like a decision win.
But when the scorecards were read, Shumenov was surprisingly declared the winner on two, 117-111 and 115-113 while Campillo was judged to have taken the third by a margin of 117-111.
Beibut Shumenov improves to 9-1 (6) and captures the WBA light heavyweight title while Campillo sees a three bout world title fight win streak snapped and falls to 19-3 (6).
The undercard saw light middle hopeful Erislandy Lara, 10-0 (6), stop veteran spoiler Grady Brewer, 26-12 (15), in the tenth and final round of their contest while super feather Eloy Perez, 16-0-2 (4), outpointed David Rodela, 14-2-1 (6), for the USNBC belt in a tough ten round battle.
