Canelo Alvarez has been the top super middleweight champion since delayed 2020, and in 2021 he became the undisputed champion.

However, while boxing’s biggest star is always low of challengers, he can only fight so many of them, including his mandates. In August, the IBF decided that the mandatory William Scull had waited long enough and stripped Canelo of his title.

On Saturday, Scull will face Vladimir Shishkin for the vacant IBF title at the Stadthalle in Falkensee near Berlin, Germany.

“It’s a dream come true to be able to fight Vladimir Shishkin for the world title on October 19, after so many years of waiting,” Scull (22-0, 9 knockouts) told The Ring. “It means a lot to me because it has been my dream since I was a child and I am very ecstatic to be able to compete in this championship thanks to the support of my family who are involved in it all, my coach Franquis Aldam, my fitness coach Raul Moggiano and my promoter Agon Sport (Ingo Volckmann).”

The Cuban-born fighter fought over 300 amateur fights before defecting to Argentina in 2016.

His first nine fights there were before it became clear he had the talent to make an impact on the world stage and he negotiated a deal to go to Germany in 2019.

This gave his career more focus and he became an IBF mandatory since defeating Yevgeny Shvedenko in July 2022. Since then, he waited patiently for a call that ultimately never came.

“It was a hard time in my career because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said of waiting for a chance to win a world title. “I was actually looking forward to meeting super champion Canelo Alvarez, but I was always focused and knew something good was going to happen.”

The 32-year-old hopes to exploit his amateur and professional experience to defeat Shishkin.

“From what I’ve seen so far, he’s a mighty boxer, but I’m ready to beat whatever Shishkin brings,” he explained. “I am a competitor who can overcome all three distances, I have prepared well, I have all the skills to overcome it.”

For much of his career, Scull has been in the shadow of two of his great compatriots, David Morrell and, more recently, Osleys Iglesias. He doesn’t see it as a problem, in fact he sees it as an advantage.

“This is something very essential for Cuban boxing. I am motivated by the successes of my compatriots,” he said. “Live Kuba! They will have another IBF world champion on the 19th.

Shishkin, ranked No. 6 on The Ring’s super middleweight rankings, turned professional in 2016. He managed to show his class by defeating Nadjib Mohammedi (TKO 10), DeAndre Ware (TKO 8) and undefeated Ulises Sierra (UD 10).

The 33-year-old Russian also dominated once-defeated Sena Agbeko (UD 10) on ShoBox and overtook former IBF champion Jose Uzcategui (UD 12). Since then, he has tread water, defeating a pair of journeymen.

I would prefer Scull, who fights at home, to tip the scales with a 12-round unanimous decision, although I expect Shishkin to have his moments.

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Gareth A. Davies met with unified lithe heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev “intimidation” Dmitry Bivol during portions of the later rounds to secure a 12-round majority victory last Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyad.

Where Bivol made the huge mistake of playing it secure in the 12th round by moving and holding on to Beterbiev, Dmitry acted like he already had the victory in his pocket and wanted to pull out to make sure he didn’t get knocked out. In retrospect, it was a substantial mistake.

Bivol (23-1, 12 KO) claims that he was not tired in the last three rounds from the 10th, but tried to be “perfect” while Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KO) fired at him. What Bivol means by being “perfect” can be translated as being elusive to avoid being bombed. He tried to neutralize Beterbiev’s attack, but forgot that he had to commit to win the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds.

Bivol retreated under fire and didn’t give much back in the last three rounds, with Beterbiev finishing him off. Pro-Bivola fans claim that he blocked Beterbiev’s shots and missed. This is not what happened. He was hit a lot by Beterbiev and looked like he was trying to save his skin.

“The second half of the fight, except for the ninth round, I made Beterbiev win. Biwol [won] probably the first four, but the fourth round was a bit of a bust. Beterbiev commanded the remaining rounds,” said Gareth A. Davies Professional boxing fansproviding a summary of his analysis of the results of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol.

“In the seven I gave to Beterbiev, there were a few assassinations, but I gave these seven to him. His aggressive ring general stance, his tenacity, and the fact that Bivol often came from behind. I watched it again this morning and gave the fourth round to Bivol.

“After watching the match carefully, I scored to make it 7-5. I just think Beterbiev did a more persistent and aggressive job. It was a very fierce fight. I wouldn’t argue with a draw in these shuttle rounds. I liked what I saw from him. Sometimes I thought he was bullying Bivol. I don’t think everyone agrees with that,” Gareth said.

Beterbiev did more than just abuse Bivol while stretching out the fights. He hit him with continuous difficult punches, making him look bad.

JUNTO NAKATANI cemented his reputation as one of the best fighters in boxing by crushing Petch Sora Chitpattana in six rounds.

The three-weight world champion dominated the early stages of the fight against his opponent, who was never stopped, before shifting into high gear in search of a third straight stoppage win.

Chitpattana went down for the first time in his career midway through the sixth and appeared to recover well. However, a second before the end of the round, a forceful left hand punch knocked the guy down for the second time, and referee Laurence Cole waved his hand, without counting.

WBC bantamweight champion Nakatani is currently 29-0 with 22 KOs, and as a result of this victory, all three of his 118-pound fights have gone the distance.

Chitpattana’s last visit to Japan was in December 2018, when he was passed by Takuma Inoue in their Tokyo clash for the interim WBC bantamweight title. It was the only defeat in his 77-fight career so far.

However, over the course of six years, he boxed and won 28 times, earning him a shot at Nakatani’s full title.

This was the second defense of the belt, which Nakatani won by sixth-round knockout of Alexandro Santiago in February. It took him just 147 seconds to say goodbye to Vincent Astrolabio in July, but this time it wasn’t so early in the night.

However, he was regularly hurting his challenger in the early rounds and seemed to have no respect for what was coming back.

And Nakatani made his breakthrough midway through the sixth round when Chitpattana succumbed to a ruthless combination that started with a left hook.

He got up in time to defeat the Count, but Nakatani defeated him again. The Thai guy did well to attack under pressure and seemed to be able to stay in the leading position until the end of the round.

But then Nakatani, one of boxing’s most lethal fighters, found the finish, uncorking another crushing left hand that sent Chitpattana to the canvas face first. Cole immediately waved it off, achieving an official time of 2:59.