On Thursday night, Eye of The Tiger Promoter, Camille Estephan gave an update regarding the current situation between his fighter
Osleys Iglesias and
Vladimir Shishkin, on ESPN+.
Estephan is trying to broker a deal with Shishkin's team for the Russian-born fighter to come to Canada
in an IBF super middleweight eliminator.
However, while things are progressing, there remains one stumbling block.
"We're negotiating with Dmitry Salita now," said the Montreal promoter. "We have come to an agreement on many things apart from the date.
"The date is an issue. We want July, they want it in September, so hopefully we can resolve that. If not, we're going to purse bids."
Iglesias (13-0, 12 KOs), ranked at No. 3 by The Ring at super middleweight, was a talented amateur in his native Cuba before turning professional in Germany in 2019. Just six fights in, he dominated faded former two-time world title challenger Isaac Chilemba en route to a 12-round unanimous decision victory in May 2022.
The 27-year-old southpaw caught the eye afterwards, scoring a first-round knockout win over Ezequiel Maderna, stopping Andrii Velikovskyi late and a fourth-round finish of Artur Reis in a three-fight span immediately afterwards, before a pair of one-round finishes of respected Marcelo Coceres and Evgeny Shvendenko after he began boxing in Canada.
Sena Agbeko made it out of the opening round but was quickly vanquished in the second last August, while his most recent opponent Petro Ivanov managed to last until round five before suffering the same fate as all but one of the 12 opponents before him.
Shishkin (16-1, 10 KOs), The Ring's No. 8-ranked super middleweight, turned professional in 2016. Since then, he's managed to show his class when stepping up the levels with a tenth-round stoppage of Nadjib Mohammedi, dismissing DeAndre Ware inside eight rounds and outpointing then-unbeaten Ulises Sierra over ten rounds.
The 33-year-old has also since dominated then once-beaten Agbeko over ten rounds on a ShoBox bill before outpointing former IBF titlist Jose Uzcategui in his first matchup that went the 12-round distance. After spending time treading water with a pair of knockout victories over journeymen, he came up short during a competitive 12-round tussle against now-former titleholder William Scull in Germany for the vacant IBF title last October.
Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on X @AnsonWainwr1ght.