By Rick Reeno

WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov is targeting the other champions in his division. He predicts IBF champion Tavoris Cloud will beat Glen Johnson later tonight in St. Louis, and next Saturday IBO champion Chad Dawson will unify by beating WBC king Jean Pascal in Canada. Shumenov is targeting a ring return for December. He will attempt to land either Cloud, or Dawson, [should they win] for December.

"I think the IBF champion Tavoris will beat Glen Johnson. Next week Chad Dawson will fight the WBC champion Jean Pascal and I think Chad Dawson will win, too. My goal is to unify all of the titles. I have the WBA. I plan to unify [it with] the WBC, the IBF and the WBO," Shumenov told BoxingScene.com.

After a very lackluster, controversial decision win over Gabriel Campillo in January, he returned in July to win an impressive one-sdied decision over his mandatory, previously undefeated Viacheslav Uzelkov. A lot of the media in Eastern Europe, including the media in Shumenov's own country of Kazakhstan, were picking Uzelkov to win. On paper Shumenov had two very tough fights with Campillo, who Uzelkov knocked out.

Shumenov credits his improved performance to a major internal career switch. In the past, Shumenov was his own promoter and manager and matchmaker. He put his own shows together and headlined the events. After the Campillo rematch, he found that it was too difficult to juggle being a fighter and a promoter. He signed a promotional agreement with Dan Goossen, which allowed him to concentrate 100% on his training and improving.

"A lot of people picked Ukelkov to win, a lot of people. Even people from my country were thinking Uzelkov would win, because I had two very tough fights with Gabriel Campillo. If I must fight again with Gabriel Campillo, I'm ready. I the WBA says that I have to fight Gabriel Campillo again, the next time it will be easier. The next time I'm going to be a better fighter than in my last fight with Uzelkov," Shumenov said.

Once the two light heavyweight title fights are in the books, Goossen will explore the possibility of matching Shumenov against the winners.

"The key right now is to let these fights happen, on Saturday night and next Saturday...because Beibut just had an impressive performance, which one HBO executive called a gutsy performance. That's what the fans wants to see....Dawson, Cloud, Johnson, Pascal...are of those are good solid fights. Based on what Beibut has accomplished in a such a short amount of time, he's ready to fight anyone. He wants the big fights. He wants to be a superstar. He has a country behind him. He has about 16 billboards out there after his last win. When he goes home, he's a star like [Manny] Pacquiao is in his country. The only thing I asked him to do, is to not run for congress," Goossen said.