Last year Beibut Shumenov walked into a Gym, as a requested guest, occupied by one Mr. Jean Pascal and one Mr. Fifty Cent. Shortly thereafter Mr. Pascal, having decided to test his strength with Mr. Shumenov, was, like a newborn babe, turned upside down and inside out by the powerful Mr. Shumenov. A message of future reference. In fact Shumenov?s long-standing target is April 19th, in a very intriguing match up, when he steps in the ring with Bernard ?The Alien? Hopkins.
The Light-Heavyweights have become a red-hot division with Adonis Stevenson shortly to fight, Hopkins and Shumenov fighting this coming weekend, and Kovalev having just destroyed another opponent this past month.
The recent controversy involving Adonis Stevenson not stepping up to the challenge to fight Kovalev has added fuel to the fire (Make no mistake after the end of all the rounds of ?he said she said?, the simple fact is Stevenson did not want to fight Kovalev at the end of the day. That much was painfully obvious after his silly last post-fight interview).
As this first quarter of the boxing year ends all five of the top Light-Heavyweight will have been in action in meaningful fights. Do not be surprised if next weekend IBA and WBA Champion Beibut Shumenov scores a major upset. Shumenov, aside from having a mixed martial arts skill set to be top rated in those endeavors, and having the wrestling abilities to be top rated in those endeavors as well, is a big strong and incredibly conditioned athlete. He throws with volume and when he chooses, can be incredibly punch stat busy.
April 19th the red-hot Light-Heavyweights continue. Will Shumenov turn the entire division upside down? Pascal certainly received that loving feeling!
