Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that after Jurgen Brahmer dropped out of his Satirday unification fight with Beibut Shumenov that former Middleweight champion William Joppy has stepped in on two days notice to face WBA Light Heavyweight champion Shumenov in Kazakhstan.
“Coming back to his hometown of Shymkent as a world champion was a major homecoming for him,” promoter Dan Goossen said of Shumenov, who is based in Las Vegas. “With Brähmer slipping out of town, we couldn’t allow the show not to go on for his homecoming. With the prime minister and so many other dignitaries attending, it would have been two devastating losses if the show didn’t go forward with Beibut defending his world championship.”
“As Joppy said to me, he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to fight for the title,” Goossen said. “He said he was in great shape coming in and believes Beibut will be on a downer with Brähmer’s escape from Kazakhstan.
“I trained too hard for Brähmer and will not disappoint my fans and many dignitaries, including the prime minister of Kazakhstan, attending this sold-out show,” Shumenov said. “I’m putting Brähmer in the rear-view mirror and intend to get right back on track defending my title against Joppy, who I applaud for accepting this fight, and focus on collecting the other world light heavyweight titles.”
“I am super disappointed,” Brähmer said. “I’m sorry for Beibut, but I also trained hard. I was in the [best] shape of my life, but I caught something. This sucks. I hope it’s nothing bad. The last two days were hell for me. I would wish this on nobody. I’m just glad to be back here again and want to be healthy as soon as possible.”
Said Universum chief Klaus-Peter Kohl: “Rather than fly to the fight in Kazakhstan, now I have to visit Jürgen in the hospital.”
