With "Super" champion Denis Lebedev facing Murat Gassiev on December 4th, the WBA ordered World and Interim cruiserweight champions Beibut Shumenov and Yunier Dorticos to negotiate. Dorticos’ Caribe Promotions has won the ensuing purse bid, targeting early February in either Houston or Miami.
Shumenov (17-2, 11 KO), a longtime light heavyweight titleholder who moved up to 200 following a loss to Bernard Hopkins, defeated BJ Flores for the interim title and Junior Anthony Wright for the world title, which the aforementioned Lebedev held before being promoted.
Dorticos (21-0, 20 KO) entered 2016 relatively unproven, but showed his mettle by knocking out the iron-tough Youri Kalenga in one of the year’s best fights. The Cuban looks like a monster in a division chock-full of them and, if he can get past Shumenov, could make for a terrific scrap with the winner of Lebedev vs. Gassiev.
It’s another very good fight in my pick for boxing’ best division. Any early picks?