William Scull’s 27 month campout as the IBF #1 contender paid off, as he won the vacant super middleweight title by unanimous decision over Vladimir Shishkin in Falkensee, Germany.
Much of the intrigue for this fight centered on how Scull would look, as he’s spent over two years fighting 6 or 8 rounders as infrequently as possible, doing nothing that might even slightly risk his mandatory position. And, the takeaway from this victory is that Scull has something, but that something isn’t anything that will win hearts or sell tickets.
Scull (23-0, 9 KO) definitely fought a Cuban style, in the traditional and not complimentary sense. He showed good timing, good movement and management of distance. Lots of holding, but he also slipped punches very well and seldom let anything through an active guard.
Shishkin (16-1, 10 KO) may have been hurt a bit in the 5th round, and his eyes started showing visible swelling and bruising in the second half of the fight. But, he wasn’t so much beaten up as he was frustrated and negated. Scull’s style made sure few of the rounds were obvious and clear. But, he was the one landing cleanly, even if he threw half as often, while Shishkin seldom found much more than the guard, or the space where Scull’s head had been a moment earlier.
Scull was hurt early in the 12th, and showed all sorts of veteran tactics to slow the pace. He spit the mouthpiece, walked away from the action twice, then got even more aggressive with his clinching. Scull even slumped to the canvas in the clinch at one point to try and burn off the final few seconds. Borderline 10-8 round for Shishkin, but even a 10-8 score wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Official scores were 116-113, 116-112, and 115-113, with Bad Left Hook having it unofficially 116-112 for Scull.
No legal highlights available to share, partly because this was a minimal effort rebroadcast pickup by DAZN, and partly because this wasn’t the sort of fight that generated much in the way of highlights.
Dusan Veletic UD-10 Tomas Salek
A plodding, sloppy affair in the chief support. Veletic (9-1-1, 5 KO) moved around the ring whipping hooks early, and Salek (22-6, 13 KO) had a hard time staying in range to connect cleanly. Veletic suffered a cut outside the right eye in the 3rd, deeply enough to bring in an immediate check from the ringside doctor, but it didn’t worsen or change the trajectory of the fight.
Things got increasingly dull and flat from there. Veletic kept going to a weird stance switch, slapping lazy right jabs from the southpaw stance with his guard down in a sloppy and disrespectful way. But, Salek couldn’t really do anything about it. Nor could he do anything about the halfhearted bolo punches Veletic played around with in the 9th. Salek started chasing and pressing in the 10th and final, but it was far too little and way too late. Veletic claims the Bund Deutscher Berufsboxer (BDB) International Heavyweight Title on official scores of 98-92, 98-92, and 97-93.
Paul Wall TKO-7 Nourdeen Toure
Wall (8-0, 5 KO) had Toure in serious trouble late in the 2nd, with the referee looking on the verge of jumping in on a particularly unpleasant head-snapper in the corner. Toure (12-3, 6 KO) recovered, and rattled Wall in the 4th round. Wall got control back in the 5th, banging Toure all over the ring. Toure kept taking a beating but didn’t actually go down until the 7th, and the referee waved it off immediately.
Sanel Hasanovic TKO-4 Christian Demaj
Demaj (7-4, 2 KO) made a fight of it until taking a delayed kneel down after a shot to the eye that may have broken something in the 4th. He got up slowly at the 8th second of his count, but didn’t look great and turned away shortly later, giving Hasanovic (8-1-1, 7 KO) the TKO victory.