Saul Alvarez is looking for an opponent – Newspaper Kommersant No. 241 (7442) of 12/27/2022

Russian boxer Vladimir Shishkin has become one of the potential opponents of the famous Mexican Saul Alvarez. Shishkin, who performs in the welterweight division (up to 76.2 kg), was given such a status by his recent victory in the International Boxing Federation (IBF) qualifying match over a very strong Venezuelan fighter Jose Uscategui. Russian manager Dmitry Salita believes that a fight with Vladimir Shishkin could be an ideal option for Alvarez to prepare for a rematch against another domestic boxer – World Boxing Association (WBA) light heavyweight champion (up to 79.4 kg) Dmitry Bivol.

The fact that he was interested in the opportunity to organize a meeting between Vladimir Shishkin and Saul Alvarez, Dmitry Salita, who is now one of the most active managers in professional boxing, said in an interview with BoxingScene.com. According to him, Shishkin would have “good chances” of defeating the hugely popular Mexican.

Vladimir Shishkin burst into the number of potential rivals of the superstar of modern boxing quite recently. The 31-year-old boxer began his professional career in 2016 and spent 14 fights in it, winning all of them, sometimes quite spectacular ones. And he got into the upper echelon of super middleweight the week before last, on December 17th. On this day in Las Vegas, Shishkin fought an extremely dangerous opponent – Venezuelan Jose Uskategui, who previously held the champion title, in a match that the International Boxing Federation positioned as a qualifying one, that is, for the status of a contender for his title. The Russian won on points, but very convincingly.

As for Saul Alvarez, Shishkin’s compatriot Dmitry Bivol annoyed him this year. With him, Alvarez, who earned fame in middleweight (up to 72.6 kg), and then performed in super middleweight for a long time, fought in May in the light heavyweight category familiar to his opponent, in which Bivol owns the belt of the World Boxing Association. Alvarez, who at that moment occupied the top lines in almost all ratings of the strongest fighters, regardless of division, was still listed as a 100% favorite of the fight, but the champion inflicted a painful defeat on him, surpassing the Mexican by a head.

After that, Saul Alvarez returned to super middleweight for the third fight against the famous Kazakhstani Gennady Golovkin. Having coped with it in September and having defended all four championship titles – WBA, IBF, as well as the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO), Alvarez emphasized that in any case he intends to have a rematch against Bivol. True, before him, he decided to compete in another “intermediate” duel against a rather classy opponent.

The first candidate for the role of such an opponent was the British John Ryder. At the end of the year, he won the title of the so-called interim WBO champion, although in general his track record looks rather modest: there are five defeats for 32 wins, and Ryder prevailed mainly over the middle peasants. The option with his participation in the fight with Saul Alvarez, which guarantees excellent fees due to the demand for the Mexican from the public, and, consequently, high fees for boxers, is lobbied by the well-known promoter Eddie Hearn. However, Dmitry Salita has no doubts that the variant with Vladimir Shishkin is much better, because “stylistically it is closest to Bivol.”

Alexey Dospekhov