Osleys Iglesias (14-0, 13 KOs) wore down and stopped Vladimir Shishkin (16-2, 10 KOs), scoring an eighth-round technical knockout in an IBF super middleweight title eliminator on Thursday night at the Montreal Casino in Montreal, Canada.
Iglesias Dominates with Power
The southpaw Cuban Iglesias, 27, buckled the knees of Shishkin with a straight left at the 2:34 mark in the eighth round. The punch caused Shishikin to stagger back. Iglesias continued to hit Shishkin with lefts that staggered him, sending him to the ropes.
Osleys then unloaded with an eight-punch combination, with most of the shots getting through the gloves of the stricken Shishkin. He got off the ropes and attempted to get away from Iglesias, but was once again backed up after getting a left-right combination.
Taking withering fire, Shishkin did the best he could to escape, moving around the ring while being bombarded the entire time. Finally, Iglesias caught Shishikin against the ropes and teed off with 10 heavy headshots, which prompted referee Michael Griffin to step in and halt the contest.
There was slightly under two minutes remaining in the round. It was too much time for the referee to allow the fight to continue. Shishikin was getting hammered by Iglesias and offering nothing back in return. If the referee Griffin had allowed the fight to continue, Iglesias would have likely dropped him because he was taking clean lefts and rights at the time of the stoppage.
Shishkin’s Efforts Come Up Short
Shishikin had fought well in rounds 1 through 7, using amateur style to try to outbox Iglesias. It was effective at times, but he was still getting very hard in each round. The seventh round heavily bruised both of Shishikin’s eyes, and his face was swollen from the many hard punches that Osleys had hit him with.
The victory makes Iglesias the IBF mandatory challenger for the winner of the September 13th fight between undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.