Dmitry Bivol made headlines when he filed a protest against all four sanctioning bodies following his defeat to Artur Beterbiev this month, although the decision was assumably more in the hopes of forcing a rematch than changing the result. However, another recent challenger has now lodged an appeal of their own, believing that the judges’ decision should be overturned.
William Scull was installed as the IBF super-middleweight mandatory challenger earlier this year and was hopeful of landing the lucrative shot at Canelo Alvarez’s undisputed crown as a result.
Yet, the Mexican superstar instead decided to vacate his IBF belt in order to pursue more recognisable names, leaving Scull to fight Vladimir Shishkin for the vacant belt in the 168lb division.
German-based Cuban Scull faced the Russian in Falkensee, Germany at the weekend and edged a unanimous-decision (116-113, 116-112, 115-113) in a tough to score, low output affair but the away fighter clearly feels as though he did enough to get the nod on the scorecards.
Speaking with Boxing Scene, Dmitry Salita, promoter of Shishkin, explained that the officiating of German referee Oliver Brien, is a key reason for the appeal to the IBF, after Brien allowed Scull to spit out his gumshield and buy time in the twelfth-round after being buzzed.
“The referee didn’t penalize or warn William Scull for hitting behind the head, hitting after the bell, holding – things like that,”
“The fighters that are athletes at heart, that spend their lifetime as professionals perfecting their craft – the right man has to win,”
“You know, we outside the ring, the business folks, have to do what they do, to do that for their guy or girl. But inside the ring, justice has to happen.”
In what many are calling the worst world title fight of the year, Shishkin landed just 14.8% of his punches (110-of-746) whilst Scull hit the target with 22.3% (80-of-359), although he threw less, resulting in less than 200 punches landing during the contest.
As a result, If the immediate rematch that Shishkin and Salita are demanding does take place, there is likely to be even less interest surrounding it.
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