LAS VEGAS – Now that Vladimir Shishkin has firmly established himself as a brilliant middleweight contender, his promoter is extra optimistic in regards to the unbeaten Russian receiving a shot at Canelo Alvarez.
The Mexican celebrity supposedly needs to face a much less threatening opponent than Dmitry Bivol when he returns to the ring in Might for his first struggle since he underwent surgical procedure on his left wrist in October. Dmitriy Salita, whose firm promotes Shishkin, hopes that the undisputed tremendous middleweight champion will take into account Shishkin for that bout partially as a result of Shishkin is right-handed and his fashion considerably resembles that of Bivol.
England’s John Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs), whose identify promoter Eddie Hearn has repeatedly talked about as a possible opponent for Alvarez’s struggle in Might, is left-handed. If Guadalajara’s Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) intends to attempt to avenge his decisive defeat to Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) subsequent September, it wouldn’t make a lot sense to struggle a southpaw who doesn’t personal a title in his prior look.
“If he needs to struggle Bivol, the right man for him to struggle to prepare for Bivol’s fashion is Vladimir Shishkin,” Salita informed BoxingScene.com. “We’ve been asking for Canelo for a very long time. Now it appears to be the fitting factor to do. John Ryder’s fashion is nothing near Bivol’s fashion. I feel Shishkin has a fantastic probability to win towards Canelo, however I simply imply that stylistically, he’s closest to Bivol.”
The much less skilled Shiskhin (14-0, 8 KOs) out-boxed Venezuelan veteran Jose Uzcategui (32-5, 27 KOs) of their 12-round IBF elimination match final Saturday evening at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Shishkin withstood Uzcategui’s energy and beat him comfortably on two scorecards (117-111, 117-111, 115-113).
“There have been a number of instances after I thought Shishkin may’ve stopped him,” Salita mentioned. “However as they are saying, there’s stage to this and that is the primary time Shishkin has been uncovered to this increased stage of boxing. He’s graduated from each stage he’s fought at up to now. Due to COVID, he had restricted exercise. He hadn’t fought since March. He has recognized his fashion, he’s working with ‘Sugar’ [trainer Javon Steward] and I feel the sky is the restrict for him now.”
By beating Uzcategui, the 31-year-old Shishkin is anticipated to develop into the IBF’s second-ranked contender for one in every of Alvarez’s 4 168-pound championships. Shishkin entered the ring ranked ninth by the IBF, two spots decrease than Uzcategui, a former IBF tremendous middleweight champion.
Shishkin appeared drained throughout the championship rounds. He fought by means of fatigue and a lower over his left eye, nevertheless, threw 750 punches and out-landed Uzcategui by 76 punches general, in response to CompuBox’s unofficial statistics.
“He’s received a very good chin, good boxing abilities,” Salita mentioned. “He got here ahead, he boxed, confirmed some flexibility. It was additionally his first 12-round struggle. That must be in your thoughts. So, I feel general, I might give him a strong B or a B-plus. That’s what he would give himself as properly. However he has proven now that he’s a world-class fighter.”
Keith Idec is a senior author/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He could be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.