by Keith Idec
An attorney for super middleweight contender Vladimir Shishkin and his promoter, Dmitriy Salita, filed an appeal Monday with the German boxing commission to overturn Shishkin’s unanimous-decision loss to William Scull on Saturday night.
David Berlin, former executive director of the New York State Athletic Commission, cited “the shameful verdict of the judges” and biased officiating by referee Oliver Brien as justification for the Association of German Professional Boxers reversing the official outcome of their 12-round fight for the IBF super middleweight title. The Cuban-born Scull resides and trains in Germany, where his promoter, Berlin-based AGON Sports & Events, staged their main event after reaching a deal with Salita Promotions.
The unremarkable bout between Scull, 32, and Shishkin, 33, headlined a card DAZN streamed worldwide from Stadthalle in Falkensee, Germany, a suburb of Berlin.
“We need to hold officials and organizations accountable,” Salita told Boxing News on Monday. “Casual boxing fans say things like, ‘Oh, that’s boxing.’ But when things like this happen and there’s no accountability, it’s terrible to just say, ‘that’s boxing.’ Thank God there’s a system of checks and balances, there’s a legal system and there’s a way to deal with this. For the sport to move forward, as we’re all trying to revive interest in it and respect for it, it’s important that the just thing happens.”
Salita added that Shishkin’s team also intends to request that the IBF order an immediate rematch.
Scull (23-0, 9 KOs) was the number one, mandatory challenger for one of Canelo Alvarez’s four 168-pound titles. He fought the second-ranked Shishkin (16-1, 10 KOs), a Russian contender who trains in Detroit, for the IBF’s unclaimed championship because Alvarez gave up that title to box Brooklyn’s Edgar Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs), whom Mexico’s Alvarez beat by unanimous decision September 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
All three judges – Germany’s Rene Fiebig (116-113), the United States’ Robert Hoyle (116-112) and France’s Ammar Sakraoui (115-113) – scored Scull the winner. Fiebig scored each of the last four rounds for Scull, who lost the 12th round according to Hoyle and Sakraoui.
Fiebig had Shishkin ahead 77-76 through eight rounds, yet oddly credited Scull for winning the final round, which he clearly lost. Back-to-back jabs by Shishkin stunned Scull less than 30 seconds into 12th final round, which left the newly crowned champion holding Shishkin.
Once Brien separated the fighters, Scull spit his mouthpiece to the canvas, which bought him approximately 17 seconds from the time Brien broke Shiskhin and Scull apart to when the action resumed. Scull mostly held during the final round to make it to the final bell.
Berlin wrote in his protest that Brien and Fiebig exhibited “gross incompetence” by officiating and scoring the 12th round the way that they did. Berlin also noted that Brien didn’t warn Scull for hitting Shishkin on the back of his head and after the bell several times.
CompuBox credited Shishkin unofficially for landing 30 more punches overall than Scull (110-of-746 to 80-of-359). Shishkin connected on nearly twice as many power punches as Scull (68-of-224 to 36-of-154) and two fewer jabs (44-of-205 to 42-of-522), according to CompuBox.
Shishkin was the aggressor and worked off his jab for much of their bout, but Scull effectively used his jab at times as well. It wasn’t until the abovementioned sequence early in the 12th round that either fighter appeared to hurt his opponent.
Salita still believes Shishkin should’ve left the ring as a champion.
“Vladimir is a victim here,” Salita said. “He gave up his life to boxing and there is so much riding on this. The right thing needs to happen. Obviously, we’d like to see William Scull get stripped. But worse-case scenario, there has to be a rematch. There has to be accountability for these kinds of things. If there’s no accountability, then this continues.”
