BEIBUT SHUMENOV W12 VIACHESLAV UZELKOV

That was a curious contest between Beibut Shumenov and Viacheslav Uzelkov on Friday Night Fights. Dropped by a left hook in the opening round, Shumenov proceeded to win every other round — maybe every other minute — of the fight.

I was impressed with Shumenov in a light-heavyweight title defence that was expected to be much tougher. He was strong, disciplined and very determined. He fought a perfect winning fight — keep moving, keep punching, keep putting rounds in the bank.

 This wasn’t what you would call a hit-and-run strategy, though. The Las Vegas-based fighter from Kazakhstan would often take the fight to Uzelkov and let his hands go, sometimes driving his Ukrainian opponent to the ropes.

 It seemed to me that Shumenov imposed his will in that exciting first round when, after going down, he rallied with a vigorous counter attack. This seemed to take a lot of the ambition out of Uzelkov.

 There is no doubt that Uzelkov is heavy handed, but he was extremely predictable. Shumenov knew he had to steer clear of Uzelkov’s left hand, and he did a good job of so doing. I am not sure if Shumenov ever got hit flush by Uzelkov’s hook after the opening round. He was either moving away from the blow or got his right hand up to block most of the punch. As Teddy Atlas noted in the commentary, Shumenov knew what was coming. It was an intelligent display of boxing.

 Uzelkov is a durable fellow but he displayed no fire, no passion. It was always Shumenov who gave the impression of, as we now say, wanting it more. He had obviously trained very hard, because there was no hint of the possible stamina problem that surfaced in the gruelling win over Gabriel Campillo in January. Shumenov clearly had a battle plan, too, as constructed by his trainer, Kevin Barry. It seemed to me that Uzelkov’s only plan was to plod forward, catch punches on his gloves and every now and again lob over a wide hook or right hand and hope to get lucky. Shumenov was far too smart to let that happen.

 It was surprising that the fight went the full 12 rounds when you consider that Shumenov was dropped in the first and got his payback by dropping Uzelkov with a right hand at the tail-end of round three. Uzelkov, however, didn’t seem eager to engage — especially after round three. Going forward and blocking punches is not the same thing as steaming ahead and risking punishment in order to inflict hurt. From the fourth onwards, each round tended to be a repetition of the one before, but I did have the sense that Shumenov had better not get complacent, because Uzelkov can hit. Shumenov, though, looked like a fighter who always knew what he was doing, at all times, after picking himself up from that shock knockdown. It was a notably mature exhibition of boxing from a champion having only his 11^th professional bout.