By Ryan Burton
Last night, multiple sources advised BoxingScene.com that WBA "regular" cruiserweight champion Beibut Shumenov suffered an eye injury in one of his final sparring sessions before his April 29th fight against WBA "interim" cruiserweight champion Yunier Dorticos (21-0). The injury will reportedly require surgery.
The bout had been mandated by WBA as they continue their effort to reduce the total number of champions they have in each division. Denis Lebedev is the WBA "super" champion even though he lost his last fight to Murat Gassiev because only his IBF title was on the line.
Shumenov had been sparring with the likes of unbeaten light heavyweight prospect Umar Salamov (18-0).
The fight was scheduled to headline a FS1/Fox Deports card at Sam's Town Gambling Hall in Las Vegas with Carlos Zambrano (26-0) facing Claudio Marrero (21-1) for the interim WBA featherweight title as the co-main event. This fight will likely now be elevated to the main event.
BoxingScene.com has reached out to Dortico's promoter Caribe Promotions and should have a response soon. It is not known at this point in time if the Cuban will remain on the card.
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