Beibut Shumenov vs Epifilano Mendoza

[mrpain81]

Shumenov won UD

[Silencers]

This was posted on another site where a memeber attended the fight.

The fight was reasonably entertaining. It was a pretty small crowd, largely due to a lack of advertising. The majority of the crowd were Russians/former SSR. In fact the only reason I knew about the card was because my girlfriend is Russian (from Uzbek) and we shop at some Russian shops one of which had a fight poster for the event. Throughout the main event the Russians were shouting things, which I had translated to me as being "Kill him" "**** him up" "Make him cry" and the like.

Shumenov looked like, if I dare say it, a fairly "typical" central asian fighter. Lead hand hanging very low, good power, good workrate, descent accuracy, bad defence, and mostly non-existant inside boxing ability.

He did well when he was on the outside, landing some hard shots, and even caught Mendoza with some nice uppercuts, especially early on. As the fight progressed, Shumenov did visibly tire, but at no point did he appear in any danger of gassing, his workrate dropped a bit, and instead of trying to put together combinations he went more into a punch-clinch mode.

Mendoza for his part didn't really do ****, he landed a few descent punches, but there was only really one or two rounds that you could say he won cleanly. He did press the action in the later rounds though, coming forward, and landed one very good punch I think in the 7th that may have rocked Shumenov.

The fighters did clash heads quite a bit, especially in the later part of the fight as they began to fall into each other with increasing frequency. As a result there was lots of mid-round 'hand-shaking', and probably the most odd thing of this fight, was that they actually did alot of mid-round HUGGING, not clinch-hugging, but apologetic-hugging after a clash of heads. It was straight up weird at some point and you could tell the ref was equally disturbed as the audience, and he didn't really know how to deal with the excessive pseudo-****sexual behavior of the fighters! Like right after a ref break, instead of going at each other, the fighters held out there hands, then slowly embraced each other chest to chest for a period of 3 to 5 seconds, and this occured at least a half-dozen times in the fight. WTF?!?

The scorecards if I remember correctly were all in the 8-2 round range which was pretty much spot on. Mendoza did more than just try to survive, but not ALOT more... He did press the action, particularly in the mid-late rounds, but not very effectively. For what it's worth, both fighters let it hang pretty good in the 10th, and there were some nice exchanges, with Shumenov in my opinion getting the slightly better of them.

Overall I'd have trouble seeing Shumenov ever holding onto a world title. He may crack top 10 though and even get a title shot. His defence and his lack of infighting ability are really going to hurt him against top guys. He reminds me of Raimkulov, only with a bit lower workrate. If he can develop more inside boxing, and even vary the power on his shots (he tends to put a bit too much into shots that seem hopeless) he could get a bit further. He certainly has a good fighting spirit, and cries a loud "UD!" with every power shot. I'd gladly watch him fight again.

[BARRON71]

I would likt to know too who won. My Kid Yusaf sparred with Shumenov for a week to get him ready for the fight. We all think this was a very risky fight to take.

[The Hammer]

Beibut won a wide UD over the tough Mendoza.

Considering it's his 7th pro fight, great result. Jeff Lacy received a gift MD last summer over the same opponent.

[bazookajoe]

The fighters did clash heads quite a bit, especially in the later part of the fight as they began to fall into each other with increasing frequency. As a result there was lots of mid-round 'hand-shaking', and probably the most odd thing of this fight, was that they actually did alot of mid-round HUGGING, not clinch-hugging, but apologetic-hugging after a clash of heads. It was straight up weird at some point and you could tell the ref was equally disturbed as the audience, and he didn't really know how to deal with the excessive pseudo-****sexual behavior of the fighters! Like right after a ref break, instead of going at each other, the fighters held out there hands, then slowly embraced each other chest to chest for a period of 3 to 5 seconds, and this occured at least a half-dozen times in the fight. WTF?!?

Has anyone ever seen any footage of this guy?