Floppy Joppy knocked out, Shumemov retained his WBA light-heavyweight belt

Shumenov, a former Olympian who fights out of Las Vegas, improved his record to 10-1, with six knockouts.

The Kazakh was in control from the first bell. Joppy, whose record fell to 39-6-2; 30, went down in the fifth round.

Seconds into the sixth Shumenov dropped the American challenger with a left hook to the body for the full count.

The 40-year-old Joppy, a former three-time WBA middleweight champion, came in as late substitute for WBO champion Jürgen Brähmer, who had to withdraw because of a stomach ailment.

Joppy last won a fight in November 2007 when he stopped Etianne Whitaker (32-27-2) in the first round.

Since then had only three fights. He lost on a tenth-round tko to Lucien Bute in February 2008, lost on points over ten rounds against Sebastian Demers in March 2010 and drew with Cory Cummings over ten rounds in November 2010.

How the WBA ranked him at No 13 last December and sanctioned this bout as a title fight only the organisation's administrators will know. Joppy has clearly reached the end of his boxing career.

On the same card, Uzbekistan's Ravshan Hudaynazarov moved to 14-0; 12 and won the WBA Fedalatin welterweight belt when he stopped Jose Luis Cruz (41-8-2; 33) in the tenth round.

Alexander Zhuravskiy (11-0; 8) knocked out Ruben Galvan in the sixth round to win the WBA International super-lightweight championship.

Light-heavyweight Gayrat Shumenov (16-0-1; 10) won the WBA International belt when Tursunboy Absullakimov did not answer the bell for the start the fifth round, Kazinform refers to SuperSport Zone, www.supresport.com .
© SuperSport Zone 2007. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.