From the outside looking in, it would appear that Shinard Bunch has lost two years of his career.
Still only 26, the Trenton, New Jersey based junior welterweight hasn’t fought since August of 2023, when he knocked out a lightly regarded journeyman in two rounds.
Bunch doesn’t look at his time out of the ring as lost time, however. He feels it was a much-needed break to catch up on life.
After tearing his rotator cuff in a 2023 loss to Bryan Flores, Bunch needed the time to undergo physical therapy. He had also split with his long-time promoter and manager, the starting point in a quest to rebuild the team around him.
In a career that had seen him training and fighting almost nonstop since turning pro in 2019, he needed some time for family as well.
“Just getting our family time back, healing and just waiting for something bigger,” said Bunch asked how he spent the past two years.
“I couldn't really do nothing because when I first turned pro, I was fighting every three weeks. I had 14 fights my first year as a pro. I had two years away from the family, the kids, just trying to sacrifice, make myself better and just trying to really lock in.”
Now armed with new manager David McWater – the founder and CEO of Split-T Management -Bunch, 21-2-1 (17 KOs), when returns to the ring this Friday. He faces Starling Castillo in a ten-round junior welterweight bout at the RP Funding Center's Convention Center in Lakeland, Florida.
The fight, which is set for a catchweight of 143lbs, will be the co-feature to a ProBox TV card headlined by a junior lightweight bout between Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov and William Foster III.
Bunch noted that, while physical therapy is never easy, the greater difficulty was the mental side of it. He had to learn how to silence the doubts and move forward as a fighter.
A big part of that transformation was forming the team he now has around him.
Bunch reunited with head coach Ron Harris, the father of 1996 U.S. Olympian Terrance Cauthen who had trained him since he first moved to Trenton from Brooklyn at age 13. He also has added on Mustafah Meekins, a rising trainer from Atlanta whom he had worked with during a stint living down south.
“I feel like with them two guys, I feel comfortable going out on my shield, because I know for a fact y'all two will come in and pick me up,” said Bunch. “They're in my life, inside the ring and outside the ring. And that's really what I feel like I connected to. Not just only boxing, because at the end, boxing is going to end.
“I'm not going to box forever. But somebody that I can always call, always lean on.”
Against Castillo, Bunch isn’t taking any baby steps back into the ring. The 29-year-old Dominican boxer sports a record of 19-1-1 (13 KOs) and has fought mostly winning opposition in recent years, though he’s also coming in on nearly a year and a half of inactivity.
Bunch, for his part, hasn’t been impressed with the little that he’s seen of Castillo.
“He definitely comes to fight,” noted Bunch. “I don't want to be cruel or anything, but I just feel like it's levels to this. I definitely appreciate the opportunity, but I feel like this is another steppingstone.
“I’m gonna go there and show them why I belong. Show them why I need to elevate and just keep progressing every day. Just build brick by brick, every day, take another step forward.”
If Bunch seems supremely confident, it’s because he’s been around boxing his whole life.
The 5’10” boxer-puncher says he had 406 amateur bouts, fighting nearly every other week since he was a child. During that time, he shared the ring with boxers like Chris Colbert and Nikita Ababiy, while running into other boxers like Errol Spence Jnr and Shakur Stevenson, who have already gone on to become world champions.
Watching your contemporaries achieve world title success already can make a boxer question whether he’s falling behind. Bunch says he hasn’t let that thought take hold in his mind.
The plan is to pick up where he left off with this three-fight deal he has signed with ProBox TV, then move into contention at junior welterweight.
“A lot of people feel like I should be further, but everything is within due time,” said Bunch. “I feel like each fight is another step to showing people, showing the world, showing everybody why I need to be at where I’m at.”
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
