British super-middleweight Frank Buglioni has predicted that WBA champion Fedor Chudinov will be “up against it” when they clash at Wembley Arena on Saturday night.
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And with no final-round heroics, it was left to the judges to seal Buglioni’s fate to the emphatic tune of 120-106, 118-108 and 117-109. “I’d love to fight him again”.
Chudinov, who captured the WBA belt from Felix Strum last May, pressured Buglioni from the opening bell. Chudinov continued to punish Buglioni in the last few rounds. Chudinov then battered Buglioni for the remainder of the round with short uppercuts to the head and occasional body shots.
“It was a massive opportunity and I gave it twelve weeks of sacrifice and gave it my all”, said Buglioni.
While Buglioni kept the champion honest with attacks to the body Chudinov was able to build an early lead, first through his much vaunted right hand then establishing a decent jab.
Having thrown caution to the wind in the dying embers of the session, he dropped Chudinov with a right hand after the bell had sounded. When Buglioni did fire back, they appeared to bounce off Chudinov.
Chudinov was unrelenting until in the tenth, he unleashed right and left hook combination, and looked to have the challenger hurt, but Buglioni ignited his partisan support by landing a four-punch combination of his own, late in the round. The 26-year-old Buglioni came out aggressively in round seven, hoping against hope that Chudinov was still feeling the effects of being knocked down.
Buglioni was handed the surprise world title shot on the back of a disappointing draw with amateur rival Lee Markham. Buglioni wouldn’t quit, pounding his gloves together enthusiastically, but Chudinov is easily the better boxer.
The home fighter was well behind on the scorecards but engaged in some fantastic exchanges with Chudinov, who landed the more eye-catching, powerful blows down the stretch.
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“Nascimento, 34, had the size advantage over the 6’1″ Chisora, but he was too sloppy and wild to land many of his wild windmill shots against the British fighter. For Chisora to beat the likes of Teper, he’s going to need to fight a lot better than he did tonight.
