Beibut Shumenov, John Ryder No Longer Listed As WBA Titleholders

A couple of fighters are no longer listed as official titleholders for the WBA.

The new rankings were released on May 31 and there were some notable changes that didn’t have to do much with who is ranked in the top 15. It’s revealed that both Beibut Shumenov and John Ryder are no longer the WBA “Regular” cruiserweight champion and Interim WBA super middleweight champions, respectively.

Shumenov, who won the “Regular” title last year after coming out of retirement, was supposed to face Arsen Goulamirian later this year after promoter Don King won a purse bid. King had tried to get the fight be made in Kazakhstan in May, but no announcement ever came. Although there has not been an official statement from the WBA, in the organization’s rankings, which can be seen at this link, Shumenov’s name no longer appears on either champions list or in the rankings itself. Goulamirian has been elevated from WBA Gold champion to “Regular” champion.

As for Ryder, he won the interim title on May 4 when he stopped Bilal Akkawy on the undercard of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs middleweight title unification. Ryder was supposed to face David Lemieux for the title but Lemieux suffered a hand injury that prevented him from competing on May 4.

If Ryder did win the title and was simply stripped of the belt due to there already being a “Regular” champion in Canelo Alvarez and a “Super” champion in Callum Smith, then his title reign would only have lasted 27 days without a title defense if the move was made when the rankings came out. Still listed on the WBA rankings is Lennox Allen as the Gold champion while Ryder remains the No. 1 contender at super middleweight.

wbaboxing.com/wp-content/uploads/rankings/2019-may.pdf

fightful.com/boxing/don-king-proposes-beibut-shumenov-vs-ars…