Photo by Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions
On the July 25th edition of PBC on NBCSN, Beibut Shumenov (15-2, 10 KOs) won a version of the WBA Cruiserweight title with a unanimous decision victory over BJ Flores (31-1-1, 20 KOs) at the Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Despite coming forward a bit strongly at the very beginning, Shumenov spent most of the fight using lateral movement and landing single shots from the outside.
“B.J. is a strong guy but he was lunging while I was scoring points,” said Shumenov, a 31-year-old native of Kazakhstan.
“Boxing is an art. I used my skills, positioning, angles and footwork to win the fight,” said Shumenov.
Flores, however, had a lot of trouble with Shumenov’s movement, and when asked by his corner to cut the ring, he even responded with a befuddled “How?!”
“Beibut always comes forward, he’s very tough, but tonight he ran the whole night. It’s tough to win a fight when the guy is trying to run in circles,” said Flores, who chased Shumenov throughout the fight instead of trying to cut off the ring.
Flores wobbled Shumenov in Round 12, but it surely wasn’t enough to change the decision.
“You can’t fight a guy who isn’t trying to engage. You have to fight to win the fight. He was throwing jabs while I was trying to hurt him,” complained Flores, a 36-year-old native of San Francisco.
Whole Flores bemoaned the loss, Shumenov has his sights on the real WBA champion, Denis Lebedev.
“Denis Lebedev is my main target. But I want to fight all the best and most dangerous cruiserweights in the world.” said Shumenov.
Photo by Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions
In the co-main event, Isiah Thomas (15-0, 6 KOs) scored a 10-round unanimous decision victory over Jordan Shimmell (19-1, 16 KOs) to win the vacant USBA Cruiserweight title.
Thomas used his southpaw stance and slight height advantage to keep Shimmell away from him for much of the fight.
“I used my defense, my eyes and most importantly I listened to my corner. I should have thrown some more punches, but I wanted to stay on the outside and use angles,” said Thomas, who won with scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93.
As for Shimmell, who lost the first fight of his career, he feels the fight was closer, though he says he will work harder in the future.
“I just have to be even more prepared. He is a great fighter, I thought it was closer. But he’s a great fighter,” said Shimmell.
“I’m okay, I’m going to come back,” Shimmell continued.
Photo by Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions
Claudio Marrero (18-1, 13 KOs) brutally knocked out Rico Ramos (34-4, 12 KOs) with an overhand left in Round 3.
“I trained very hard for this fight and I was just listening to the corner and we saw that the overhand was open and I connected on it,” said Marrero.
“I’ve improved a lot since my loss and I come into each fight better and better,” Marrero continued.
“He’s tough. I need the experience I need the rounds so I’m thankful” #Boxing #PBConNBCSN pic.twitter.com/TEE4UaNOLF
— RoundByRoundBoxing (@RBRBoxing) July 26, 2015
In the first televised fight, Andrew Tabiti (11-0, 1O KOs) scored an eight-round unanimous decision victory over a flabby Robert Santos (12-2, 5 KOs).
Tabiti, who is trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr., fought from a shoulder roll stance throughout the fight, and landed shots to the body and head of a very flabby Santos.
