LAS VEGAS – Beibut Shumenov, a lawyer in Kazakhstan, had a plan. Gabriel Campillo, a boxer from a country known best for fighting bulls, had the power. Put them together and you might have a good light-heavyweight. As it is, Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson don’t have much to worry about.
The plan prevailed.
Shumenov won a split decision Friday night and took the World Boxing Association’s version of the title from Campillo in a rematch that had a different winner, yet some of the same controversy from last August’s majority in Kazakhstan. Campillo won that one, although Shumenov has been arguing about it ever since.
This time, it is Campillo’s turn to argue.
“I got robbed and I want it investigated,’’ Campillo said as he stood in the middle of the ring at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino while his angry trainer, Sergio Martinez, had to be restrained from taking the bout into some extra-curricular rounds.
It safe to say that the left-hander from Spain won’t be getting any legal advice from Shumenov, who was bloodied, yet nimble enough to jump through enough loopholes to escape with a decision. Shumemov (9-1, 6 KOs) won 115-113 on Jerry Roth’s card. Judge Patricia Morse Jarman scored it 117-111 for the Kazakhstani attorney. On Levi Martinez’ card, it was 117-111 for Campillo (19-3, 5 KOS), who also suffered a cut over his left eye.
“I’m not surprised by the decision,’’ Shumenov said. “I thought I won.’’
There was plenty to argue about. After the opening couple of rounds, Campillo’s superior power appeared to be the ruling factor. Shumenov, often looking dazed, began to back away. If nothing else the argument figures to continue until the two fight for a third time. No matter what happens, there doesn’t figure to be much of an argument about who doesn’t belong at the top of the light-heavyweight division. Shumenov and Campillo don’t.
In time, may be. At least, that was the suggestion from Shumenov, who had former David Tua trainer Kevin Barry in his corner for the first time.
“The difference is that I have the best trainer in boxing,’’ said Shumenov, whose company co-promoted the card with Oscar De La Hoya’s company, Golden Boy. “He gave me all the directions to win this fight.’’
Directions good enough for two judges, anyway.
On the undercard:
The 10th lesson plan in junior-middleweight prospect Erislandy Lara’s education got off to a slow start, grew rocky and ended with him scoring a 10th-round TKO of Grady Brewer in the first televised fight on Fox Sports Net. Early on, Lara (10-0, 6 KOs) a former Cuban amateur, looked flat-footed and one-dimensional. He tried to set up his best punch, a straight left. In the fifth, Brewer (26-12, 15 KOs), who won The Contender in 2006, delivered some of his own reality television with rights that stunned Lara. But a head butt badly bloodied Brewer over the left eye in the sixth. Brewer never seemed to recover. He was dropped by a left late in the 10th. Referee Tony weeks stopped it 16 seconds before the closing bell.
The card’s first fight ended in front of a lot empty seats. Anybody looking for their seat would not have seen it anyway, because of a quick body shot from Gayrat Ahmedov (13-0-1, 9 KOs), a cruiserweight from Uzbekistan. Sixty-five seconds after the opening bell, Ahmedov landed a short left that dropped Harley Kilfian (8-4, 7 KOs), a Wisconsin cruiserweight who crashed onto the canvas like a wrecked motorcycle.
The body work continued in the second bout, thanks to another fighter from Uzbekistan, junior-middleweight Ravshan Hudaynazarov (10-, 9 KOs), who threw a left that sent Kenyan Shadrack Kipruot (10-13, 7 KOs) backpedaling onto the seat of his trunks and unable to continue in a TKO defeat at 1:26 of the third.
Eloy Perez beat the stroke of midnight and David Rodela.
With late Friday just a few minutes from turning into early Saturday, super-feather weight Perez (16-0-1, 4 KOs) of Salinas, Calif., battled through 10 bruising rounds for a unanimous decision over David Rodela (14-2-3, 6 KOs) in the final fight on a card that featured Beibut Shumenov’s split decision over Gabriel Campillo for a piece of the light-heavyweight title.
Rest of the undercard:
Las Vegas welterweight Jessie Vargas (8-0, 3 KOs) won a four-round unanimous decision over Rickey McKinney (3-2, 2 KOs) of Baton Rouge, La.
Featherweight Ronny Rios of Santa Ana, Calif., stayed unbeaten (9-0, 4 KOs) with a six-round unanimous decision over Wilshaun Boxley (5-4, 3 KOs) of Coons Rapids, Minn.
And a long night proved to be a short one for junior-welterweight Carlos Molina (10-0, 6 KOs), who needed only 54 seconds to score a first-round knockout of Tyler Ziolowski (12-11, 6 KOs) of St. Joseph, Mo.
