Frank Buglioni vs. Fernando Castaneda this Friday, July 24th in London, UK

By Boxing News - 07/21/2015 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: #13 WBA super middleweight contender Frank Buglioni (16-1-1, 12 KOs) will be facing 26-year-old journeyman replacement opponent Fernando Castaneda (23-9, 14 KOs) this Friday, July 24th in a scheduled 12 round bout for the vacant WBA Inter-Continental super middleweight title at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.

Buglioni, 26, was supposed to be fighting for a world title against WBA World super middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov (13-0, 10 KOs) next, but he suffered a broken nose during training recently, causing their fight to be postponed until later this year. That’s actually a lucky break for Buglioni because he needs a lot more improvement for him to have a chance of beating the hard hitting slugger Chudinov.

Buglioni now has to hope that he can beat Castaneda, who has lost three out of his last four fights in the last two years. It obviously helps when your opponent has been beaten in 3 out of their last 4 fights, so it’s definitely possible Buglioni might actually win this fight. However, there are no guarantees that Buglioni can beat anybody, even 2nd tier fighters, because he’s clearly not that kind of talent.

In his last fight, Buglioni fought to a 10 round draw against Lee Markham last May. Many boxing fans felt that Buglioni should have lost that fight. But whatever the case, the performance from Buglioni showed how limited he is as a fighter, because Markham is a guy that the top middleweights would handle with ease. The fact that Buglioni was given a controversial 10 round draw against him tells you pretty much all you need to know about Buglioni’s talent level or lack thereof.

“This is a crucial fight for me and I know that I have to perform in style and win,” Buglioni said via skysports.com. “Whilst it’s disappointing that it’s not Chudinov in front of me, Castaneda is a game, strong, fighter and I believe he’s also done plenty of sparring with Saul Alavarez, so he’ll know his way around the ring.”

Castaneda is game but very, very limited. He’s suffered knockout losses to Johan Perez and Teerachai Kratingdaenggym in the past four years. He’s definitely susceptible to getting knocked out when facing a puncher, so there’s a good chance that Buglioni will be scoring a knockout in this fight if he takes the action to Castaneda.

“He’s [Castaneda] the final hurdle I have to overcome until I get to Chudinov later this year. I’m looking to put on a professional performance and come through victorious and then focus on Chudinov.”

I hate to say it but I don’t given Buglioni any chance of beating a talent like Chudinov. We’re talking about fighters from different levels, and Buglioni occupies the lower level and will probably be getting knocked out in this fight. I mean, I wish Buglioni a lot of luck because he’s going to need it, but I don’t think for a second that he’s going to be able to make it competitive against Chudinov.

In the meantime, Buglioni needs to make sure that he doesn’t get whipped again by another opponent that he’s supposed to beat. I think he’ll beat Castaneda, but I also thought that Buglioni was going to best Lee Markham and Sergey Khomitsky, and I was proven wrong about that.



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