Undefeated No. 1 fighter William Scull (23-0, 9 KOs) defeated second-ranked Vladimir Shishkin (16-1, 10 KOs) to win a questionable 12-round unanimous decision at City Hall on Saturday night to capture the vacant IBF -Super middleweight title to be secured in Falkensee, Germany.
The 33-year-old Shishkin was the aggressor throughout, landing flawless right hands and appearing to control virtually every round of the fight. In the twelfth round, Shishkin appeared to hurt the Cuban Scull with a beautiful shot, causing it to lose its mouthpiece.
It’s unclear whether Scull spat it out or whether it fell out. In either case, he was granted a timeout that might have saved him from being stopped.
The scores were 116-113, 116-112 and 115-113.
The fight had a basic routine in which Shishkin landed a straight right and then held. During the clinches, Scull hit him in the side and in the back of the head.
Scull struck primarily on the arm in the clinch and repeatedly hit Shishkin with punches behind the head. In several rounds, Scull hit Shishkin with shots that fell after the bell rang. All in all, it wasn’t a nice fight to watch.
After the fight, Scull called out WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, hoping to persuade him to fight for the undisputed championship. It is unlikely that Canelo will show interest in fighting Scull as he is still unknown to the boxing public in the US and Mexico.
There is no money to fight him. Canelo vs. Scull wouldn’t get fans to buy the fight on PPV even if the undercard was loaded. Scull has no punch and holds a lot.
Scull’s best chance for a decent money fight is if promoter Eddie Hearn wants to pit his fighter Edgar Berlanga against him. It might be interesting to see if Berlanga could handle the IBF’s 10-pound rehydration limit, which is highly doubtful.