By Keith Idec

Otto Wallin wants his fight Saturday night to be the first of many matches broadcast on American television.

The Swedish southpaw is scheduled to battle Baltimore’s Nick Kisner in a 10-round heavyweight bout on the Christina Hammer-Claressa Shields undercard at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

For Wallin, his debut in the United States is an opportunity to show unaware American fight fans that he is a heavyweight worth tracking.

The 28-year-old Wallin’s opponent obviously isn’t a heavyweight contender, but the 6-feet-5, 230-pound Wallin will fight for the first time in nearly a year. If his new promoter, Dmitriy Salita, can keep the self-described “pretty agile” and “crafty southpaw” busier than he has been, Wallin wants to fight a ranked heavyweight later this year.

“I don’t think I’m very far,” Wallin said on a conference call Monday. “I just wanna come back now, on Saturday, and put in a good performance, and stay busy this year, and hopefully a big shot is gonna come very soon.”

The 28-year-old Kisner (21-4-1, 6 KOs) has competed more at cruiserweight than heavyweight in recent years. The 5-feet-11 Kisner also has been knocked out in a cruiserweight fight and has knocked out just six of his 26 professional opponents (23 percent).

“I think he suits me well,” said Wallin, who’s trained by former WBA super featherweight and lightweight champ Joey Gamache. “There’s not too much video out there on him, but there’s some. I definitely believe it’s enough. I know what I’ve gotta do and I’ve been training hard. So, I feel ready for him.”

Wallin-Kisner is one of three fights Showtime is set to televise Saturday night as part of a “ShoBox: The New Generation” tripleheader.

In another 10-round heavyweight encounter, Jermaine Franklin (17-0, 13 KOs), of Saginaw, Michigan, and Detroit’s Rydell Booker (25-1, 12 KOs) are set to square off. In the 10-round main event, Shields (8-0, 2 KOs), a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Flint, Michigan, and Germany’s Hammer (24-0, 11 KOs, 1 NC) will fight for Shields’ IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight titles and Hammer’s WBO 160-pound championship. 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.