By Luke Furman
The World Boxing Organization's light heavyweight champion, Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21KOs), took a direct shot at Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9KOs), the World Boxing Association's "super champion" at light heavyweight.
Kovalev is scratching his head with the WBA's recent decision to make Shumenov the "super champion" at 175-pounds. Shumenov has been very inactive, and only made two defenses since July 2011. For unknown reasons the WBA felt Shumenov was worthy of the new status.
The WBA is taking a lot of heat from the press, and the fans, because the organization is creating a huge mess with multiple champions in each weight division. Juergan Braehmer has since captured the WBA's "regular" version of the title at 175, which now creates more confusion with two boxers claiming to be the "WBA champion" at the weight. Middleweight Gennady Golovkin was another fighter who was recently given this "super champion" status, with Martin Murray and Jarrod Fletcher fighting for the old WBA title in February.
"Beibut Shumenov is a world champion only in writing. To not box for a year and a half, and then get the status of super champion.....it's funny. The WBA is a [sanctioning body] that has some strange, inappropriate decisions. Perhaps the officials simply are feeding off of him, because, as I have heard, Beibut is quite financially secure," Kovalev told Championat.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
