By Nick Bellafatto
Whether in hindsight the now deposed WBA titlist Beibut Shumenov (14-2, 9 KO’s) suffered from inexperience, had no trainer in his corner, was tailor made or an undeserving champion, or had an off night, the fact remains that he was outclassed in every way by father time in the form of 49-year-old Philly fighter slash legend Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KO’s).
Carving out what should have been a unanimous decision victory en-route to unifying the WBA and IBF light heavyweight titles, save for incompetence on the part of judge Gustavo Padilla, B-Hop after a couple early feel-out rounds at the Washington D.C. Armory had it all going his way.
This would include landing almost at will hard jabs, lead-rights, the left hook, and counters from all angles in the face of little resistance on the part of a lackluster if not totally ineffective Shumenov.
And when the Kazakh fighter did try to get busy towards the close of the fight, it only got worse, as the master craftsman let loose with bad intentions to drop Beibut in round 11 with a crushing lead-right.
All told it was a walk in the park for Bernard, who no doubt has another Canadian based Haitian on his mind. This is a reference to non other than WBC champion Adonis Stevenson, a fighter who recently signed with Al Haymon, as well one who made his way from HBO to Showtime to avoid the man many feel is a serious threat to separate him from his belt as well as his senses, that being Sergey “The Krusher” Kovalev.
Are Hopkins and Stevenson to match up in the near future? Pending a deal with the Harvard educated Haymon this could be a distinct possibility, one in which if it goes down I’ll have to side with the man who’s fond of saying “crazy like a fox.”
Porter administers a beat-down, forces Malignaggi to contemplate retirement
The time, 1 minute and 14 seconds of round 4, as undefeated IBF welterweight champion Shawn “Showtime” Porter (24-0-1, 15 KO’s) in what amounted to a monstrous performance would emerge successful in his first ever title defense. This at the expense of challenging Brooklynite Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KO’s).
Confident going in to contest for and garner a third major world title at the expense of Porter, Malignaggi could only after being on the receiving end of a less the four-round beat-down contemplate retirement.
That’s to say Shawn under father and trainer Kenny Porter from the first bell onward let loose of a jolting jab, to soon include a leaping left hook of which blows in tandem would get “Showtime” inside to pound away and disorient the challenger in ways not seen since defilement at the hands of Miguel Cotto some years back.
Wobbling more than once to then momentarily drop the “Magic Man” in the fourth, Porter would follow up to down Paulie for good in what may very well have been his last fight. Other than that, considering Malignaggi has been a perplexing opponent for many, this victory was not only impressive, but for Shawn “Showtime” Porter one that holds promise for future endeavors.
Quillin in target practice session defeats Konecny
Czech fighter Lukas Konecny (50-5, 23 KO’s) in trying to unseat unbeaten WBO middleweight champion Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (31-0, 22 KO’s) would devoid of a jab prove mainly a target, to in essence allow Quillin to practice combination blows over the course of 10 rounds. The end result, a unanimous decision victory for “Kid Chocolate” by scores of 120-108, 119-109, and 118-110.
That’s right, I said over the course of 10 rounds. That’s because even though it was a 12-round fight, Konecny in the last couple of stanzas decided to be more assertive, to with hard left hooks and more find gaping holes in the defending champion’s defense.
So if indeed “Kid Chocolate” is granted that which he asks for, a date with either the winner of Cotto-Martinez or Chavez Jr.-Golovkin, then obviously some work remains to be done.
