William Scull (left) lands a jab throughout his unanimous choice win over Vladimir Shishkin of their Oct. 19 vacant IBF tremendous middleweight title struggle in Falkansee, Germany.
Photograph credit score: Torsten Helmke, AGON Sports activities
One of many worst title fights of the yr may in some way produce a sequel.
The Ring has confirmed that Vladimir Shishkin and his staff search to have his lone profession defeat overturned. Shishkin misplaced a controversial choice to William Scull of their Oct. 19 vacant IBF tremendous middleweight title struggle in Falkansee, Germany. Scull gained by scores of 116-112, 116-113 and 115-113, although most observers felt Shishkin was unfortunate to not have his hand raised.
Shishkin is promoted by Salita Promotions. Each events are legally represented by David Berlin, who filed a criticism on Monday to Bund Deutscher Berufsboxer, the presiding boxing fee in Germany. Shishkin’s staff cited dodgy scoring by the judges and biased officiating by Berlin-based referee Olivier Brien.
Boxing Information’ Keith Idec was the first to report the event.
Scull (23-0, 9 knockouts) was rewarded for his effectivity over Shishkin’s significantly larger punch output. Compubox’s unofficial statistics credited Scull with touchdown simply 80-of-359 whole punches (22.3 p.c) of their dreadful 12-round struggle. Shishkin (16-1, 10 KOs) landed 110-of-746 punches (14.8 p.c). Hurtful to Shishkin’s case was that 70 p.c of his punches have been jabs (522), but landed two fewer than Scull (44-to-42).
Shishkin landed 68-of-324 energy punches (30.4 p.c)—outlined by Compubox as any punch that isn’t a jab. Scull was simply 36-of-154 on this class (23.4 p.c).
A number of particular person rounds have been flagged as suspect.
Decide Rene Fiebig (Germany) scored the competition 116-113 for Scull. He scored the second spherical 10-10 and in some way awarded the twelfth to Scull, a spherical the place the native boxer was rocked early within the spherical and regularly clinched down the stretch.
Decide Robert Hoyle (United States) was the lone official to attain spherical eight for Scull. The three-minute body noticed Scull fail to land a single energy punch (0-of-14) and simply 4 whole punches within the spherical. The fifth spherical was one other outlier that noticed Hoyle award a transparent Shishkin spherical for Scull.
The official protest additionally cited the “gross incompetence” of the referee, notably within the closing spherical. Shortly after the 2 fighters have been separated from a clinch, Scull deliberately spit out his mouthpiece. Not solely was he not warned, however was awarded invaluable time to get well after being harm earlier within the spherical.
It’s comprehensible for Shishkin and his staff to say injustice over the choice. Nevertheless, official scores are hardly ever if ever overturned with out proof of corruption. On the event when commissions and sanctioning our bodies acknowledge officiating incompetence, it’s usually met with mild disciplinary motion.
Shishkin’s staff has a back-up plan in place. A request shall be filed with the IBF to order a direct rematch.
Scull and Shishkin have been each considered necessary challengers to the IBF tremendous middleweight title. Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) beforehand held the belt—together with each different and The Ring championship at 168—however was stripped for failure to defend versus Scull.
Shishkin was granted the title shot because the IBF No. 2-rated contender. He defeated former titleholder Jose Uzcategui in a Dec. 2022 title elimination contest.
Scull earned his sanctioning physique rating with a twelve-round win over Evgeny Shvedenko that very same yr. Their July 2022 closing eliminator was for the No. 1 spot.
As soon as the title was faraway from Alvarez’s reign, the IBF ordered a Scull-Shishkin vacant title struggle. A handbag bid listening to was scheduled because of the lack of motion within the negotiation interval. Salita Promotions was capable of strike a take care of AGON Sports activities, Scull’s promoter, on the eleventh hour to keep away from that course of.
The subsequent RING rankings replace will see Scull and Shishkin land at No. 6 and No. 7, respectively, at tremendous middleweight.
Jake Donovan is a senior author for The Ring and vice chairman of the Boxing Writers Affiliation of America.
