In yet another embarrassing and questionable verdict rendered in a Las Vegas ring, the obvious and deserving winner losses his WBA Light Heavyweight title in a terrible decision to an opponent that absorbed a beating through most of the 12-round fight.  In retrospect, just another highly questionable Las Vegas judging that has become way too commonplace. In a WBA/IBA Light Heavyweight unification bout at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Spain's Gabriel "Chico" Campillo was the unfortunate loser of his WBA crown to Kazakhstan's Beibut Shumenov, who retained his IBA sanctioned crown in the process. 

     The 175-pound unification bout between Campillo (19-2 with 5 KOs) and Shumenov (8-1 with 6 KOs) was a rematch of Campillo's  WBA title defense victory via a majority decision over Shumenov in August 2009 in Kazakhstan.

     From the opening round, it was obvious that Campillo had the better all-around boxing skills, as he controlled the action with his excellent jab and movement.  The Kazakhstan native displayed the customary stiff, robotic European style while trying to press the action and throwing hard punches.  By round’s end,  Shumenov's left cheek was swollen, a victim of Campillo's jabs that consistently found their mark.

     From the second through the fourth rounds, Campillo became the aggressor,  with Shumenov  now in retreat and taking punishment from his more athletic opponent.  While Shumenov countered with sporadic 3 and 4 punch hard combinations, the crispier punching Spaniard landed the better punches and combinations.

     The fight's middle rounds followed the same pattern, with an extremely confident Campillo pressing forward and landing combinations to the body and head of Shumenov, who answered with some hard punches that never seemed to affect his more active opponent. Shumenov was slowing down noticeably, and his punches were coming slower and less effective.

     The eight and ninth rounds were especially brutal ones for Shumenov, as he was taking punches at an alarming rate while offering little resistance.  Campillo stepped up his attack in the ninth round, connecting with accurate non-stop combinations to the head that had a bleeding Shumenov in full survival mode,  getting battered from corner to corner.  No one would have faulted the referee had he stepped in and stopped the action to save a battered Shumenov from further punishment.  The referee showed unusual restraint in letting the action continue with a brave but wobbly Shumenov almost  defenseless.

     The final three rounds were a mirror image of the previous ones, with the very confident Campillo out boxing and out punching the slower and tiring Shumenov, whose only answer was to throw a few hard combinations that had no affect on Campillo.

     At the final bell,  there was no question that the busier, better punching Spaniard had easily captured the decision in the apparently one-sided bout and thus -it seemed- he had won the WBA and IBA Light Heavyweight unification fight.   However,  by what has become a seemingly recurring theme by Las Vegas judges,  Beibut Shumenov was awarded a split decision victory over Campillo. It was surely a shock, not only to the "looser" but to anyone who had witnessed the fiasco.

     It is my opinion that only judge Levi Martinez had the fight scored correctly, awarding Campillo the win with a score of 117-111  (9 rounds to Campillo and 3 to Shumenov).  Shockingly,  judge Jerry Roth scored it  115-113 for Shumenov,  and the other judge,  Patricia Morse Jarman, inexplicably had a ridiculous score of 117-111 for Shumenov  (9 rounds for Shumenov and only 3 for Campillo), the exact opposite of judge Levi Martinez's take on the fight.

     It appears that judges Roth and Jarman may have awarded points to Shumenov whenever his face hit Campillo's gloves, as that is the only logical answer for their scoring; unless they both attended the "Stevie Wonder School for Referees." Whatever the reason, the evening provided yet another example of  what boxing fans have become accustomed much too often, another disgraceful and embarrassing Las Vegas decision.

     In the card's semi-final bout, Cuba's Erislandy Lara was a 10th round TKO winner over veteran Grady Brewer, wisely taking the decision away from the judges' hands. The fight was scheduled for 10-rounds in the Light Middleweight division.

     The 26-year old Lara (9-0 with 5 KOs), a highly decorated former star in Cuba's amateur program now living in Miami, Florida, was facing his most experienced opponent in the 2-time Light Middleweight champion Brewer (26-11 with 15 KOs). Brewer had won the IBA Light Middleweight crown and in his previous fight in August 2009 captured the vacant IBC light Middleweight title. It was clearly the best opponent the Cuban had met in his professional career, and a clear "step up" in competition. Brewer claims wins over Stevie Forbes and Cornelius Bundrage in an eleven year "pay-for-punch" career that netted him the two Light Middleweight titles.

     The 39-year old Brewer proved to be a dangerous opponent for Lara in the early rounds. Fighting from the "port side," Lara absorbed some hard punches from the seasoned veteran in the opening round, and was also stunned in the third and fourth rounds by hard right hand punches. However, the younger and more active Lara kept the fight at a distance from then on, controlling the action with his superior boxing skill, quicker hand speed and movement. He avoided any other solid punches from Brewer by keeping his gloves high over his face in a strong defensive showing.

     The tenth and final round proved to be Brewer's downfall, as a solid left uppercut dropped him on his back with one minute left in the fight. After the mandatory 8-count, a visibly hurt Brewer laid on the ropes with a determined Lara in pursuit. After landing several hard punches to the head of the wobbly Brewer, the referee wisely stopped the action at 2:44 of the final round.

     The impressive win over the veteran Brewer raised the Cuban's record to 10-0 with 6 wins coming under the limit, and stamps him as a fighter to watch in the very talented 154-pound division. The future appears to be bright for the 26-year old fighter with excellent boxing skills, adequate punching power and a solid boxing foundation established in the highly acclaimed Cuban amateur ranks.

     Only time will tell.