Saturday 14 December 2013

Beibut Shumenov v Tamas Kovacs

Some fights are just mismatches from the second they are signed to the final bell. We had one such bout this weekend as Kazakhstan's Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9) faced WBA #14 ranked challenger Tamas Kovacs (23-1, 14).

Shumenov, the WBA Light Heavyweight "super" champion, had been inactive for 18 months, he could have gone in after 5 years out and still made light work of the limited Kovacs who looked out of his depth the first time Shumenov landed a left hook.

Kovacs had a bright 10 seconds to start the fight. From then on though it was all Shumenov who quickly shook off any ringrust, and got his 1-2's going freely. By the end of the first round you could tell one of these men was a championship level fighter and when Shumenov landed a left hook very late in the round you could tell that Kovacs wasn't even close to world level.

To his credit Kovacs did get up and came out for round 2, but things didn't get any better for him as he was dropped from a left uppercut as Shumenov assumed total control of the bout.

Thankfully, for the over-matched Kovacs, his suffering would be ended in round 3 when Shumenov detonated a straight right hand that sent Kovacs down for the 3rd time in the fight. This time the referee had decided enough was enough and called a halt to the fight.

The bout, as much of a mismatch as it was, seemed to be a showcase for Shumenov who now looks likely to be fighting someone like Bernard Hopkins in a much, much more meaningful and tough assignment. Yes this was pointless in terms of competitiveness but it's purpose was to give Hopkins, and Showtime, a man in the 175lb division that they could talk about especially considering rival network HBO have 2 in the form of Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev.

No comments:

Post a Comment