By Jake Donovan
Vladimir Shishkin’s stateside debut was a rousing success.
The unbeaten Russian super middleweight prospect had his way with serviceable DeAndre Ware, wearing down his American foe en route to an 8th round stoppage Friday evening at Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
An accumulation of punches left Ware defenseless, prompting his trainer to wave the white towel in surrender at 2:40 of round eight of their Showtime-televised main event.
Ware has enjoyed the best and worst moments of his career on the ShoBox circuit, including a hard-fought 10-round win over previously unbeaten Ronald Ellis just six months ago. It seemed like an eternity after just one round of action, with Shishkin throwing 95 punches in the opening frame.
The pace hardly slowed from there, with the 28-year old Russian ultimately connecting on 254 of 656 total punches (39%) in just under eight rounds of action. The bulk of it came in his power game, landing nearly four times as many power punches as Ware (13-2-2, 8KOs), who fell behind early and never found a way to narrow the gap.
The threat of a stoppage came as early as midway through the bout, with Ware’s corner insisting the amount of punishment he was taking wasn’t going to last much longer.
Sadly, it did and without any hope of turning things around as Shishkin continued to chop down his opponent known as ‘The Axeman” for his out-of-the-ring full time job as a firefighter in his Toledo (Ohio) hometown.
Seven rounds worth of punishment clearly took its toll on Ware, as much detected by Shishkin who abandoned side-to-side movement as he charged forward with every intention of forcing a stoppage.
That moment came late in round eight, when Ware’s corner literally threw in the towel, prompting referee Gary Ritter to stop the contest.
The win capped a successful U.S. debut for Shishkin (9-0, 6KOs), who had fought exclusively in Eastern Europe prior to Friday evening. His latest impressive performance marks his fourth consecutive stoppage win, all extending five or more rounds including a 10th round stoppage of former light heavyweight contender Nadjib Mohammedi last October.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
