KZBlog

Beibut Shumenov, an undefeated boxer from Kazakhstan, is widely viewed as a future world champion. At 26 years old, he was undefeated–8 fights and 6 wins by knockout–although he made the decision to turn professional only in 2007. He is also one of the few CIS boxers who was smart enough to found his own company, KZ Event Productions, meaning that he is not beholden to businessmen or the government boxing association. By comparison, one member of Kazakhstan’s 2008 Olympic boxing team works as a security guard at Mega Mall in Astana and another is a police officer, when they are not in the ring.

So it was a shame that this promising fighter lost a bout to WBA light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo on August 15th of this year. It was a shame that the match took place in Kazakhstan, at the Astana Boxing Complex. It was too bad that he had family from Shimkent in the audience. And it was a shame that he lost on points, with the match a draw until the final round. Campillo won on the basis of one well-timed blow in the 12th round. Even more interestingly, most spectators believed that Shumenov was the clear winner, dominating the entire match. But the match apparently ended amicably with Campillo saying, “Shumenov is a great boxer…He will be world champion.”

However, that wasn’t the end of the matter. In September, Shumenov’s company filed a lawsuit against Camillo and refusing to pay him claiming that he violated Kazakhstan Federation and World Boxing Association drug testing rules. According to eleven witnesses immediately after the fight instead of going directly to the drug testing room, Campillo locked himself in the men’s shower room with his trainer for eleven minutes. Campillo claims that a WBA judge and a WBA supervisor were with him at all times. Both the WBA officials also corroborate this story, saying they were in the locker room with Campillo after the fight and that he was only out of their sight for ten seconds when he went into the shower room. However witnesses claim that neither official was in the locker room and that Campillo and his trainer spent at least five minutes in the shower room alone. A bit suspicious.

Now we have a resolution of sorts. The WBA has sanctioned a rematch to take place sometime before 28 February 2010. Shumenov, as both fighter and President of KZ-Events, has accepted the decision and withdrawn his lawsuit and any claim that Campillo violated the rules. Campillo for his part says that all questions of payment for the first match have been resolved and that there are no bad feelings between the two fighters.

Hopefully this time some of Shumenov’s relatives, whom I know indirectly, will think to invite the American along to watch a future world champion take Campillo down.