By Scott Gilfoid: #4 WBA Frank Buglioni (17-1-1, 13 KOs) will be running into a buzz saw tonight when he gets inside the ring to challenge for the WBA “regular” super middleweight title against a very powerful and dare I say talented Fedor Chudinov (13-0, 10 KOs) in a 12 round bout at the SSE Wembley Arena in London, UK.
Chudinov isn’t the No.1 champion with the World Boxing Association. His title belt is below that of WBA Super World super middleweight champion Andre Ward. But never the less, Chudinov is still a very good fighter with a lot of punching power.
It’s going to be very difficult for the 26-year-old Buglioni to rip his WBA title away from him tonight. I can’t see it happening, but you never know.
Start time: 7:00 p.m.
Where to watch: BoxNation
Buglioni will be the second Brit within the last two weeks challenging for a world title at 168. George Groves attempted to win the WBC 168lb title against Badou Jack earlier this month on 9/12, and he met with defeat in losing a 12 round split decision against the more talented Badou. Now it’s Buglioni’s turn to try and win a title at super middleweight. It’s unclear where he’ll go if he loses the fight. He’s too big and slow to move down to middleweight to try and get something going in that division.
Additionally, Buglioni doesn’t have the punching power to move up to 175 to compete against the more powerful light heavyweights like Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev, Andrzej Fonfara and Sergey Kovalev. Buglioni is kind of stuck where he’s at right now at 168, and he has to make the best of things in this weight class starting with his fight against Chudinov tonight.
The fighters have all made weight and we're ready to go! #ManVsMachine pic.twitter.com/w01A6vqzxX
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“It is coming close to fight time now and Buglioni will be starting to realize what he has got himself into,” Chudinov said via ESPN.com. “He must have seen Groves’ weak challenge for the world title [against Jacks] and must be questioning his own credential to be challenging for a world title. He is out of his depth and he won’t be able to swim fast enough from the shark who will rip into him.”
It’s definitely going to be tough for Buglioni in this fight because he’s not a huge puncher, and he’ll need to jump in and jump out all night long if he wants to have any success against Chudinov. Buglioni was stopped by Sergey Khomitsky last year in April 2014 in losing by a 6th round knockout. Earlier this year, Buglioni was held to a 10 round draw against Lee Markham.
Even if you want to say that Buglioni deserved to get the win, and I don’t want to say that, he still struggled against an average fighter in Markham. These are the type of fighters that you need to be able to beat with ease if you’re any good, and Buglioni showed that he just wasn’t at a high enough level to deal with Markham to win the fight.
Buglioni was on course to face Chudinov earlier this year on 7/24, but the fight couldn’t take place because Chudinov suffered a broken nose during training camp. This led to the fight being postponed until September 26th.
Chudinov defeated Felix Sturm by a 12 round split decision in May of this year to capture the vacant WBA “regular” title.
Buglioni hasn’t lost a fight since his defeat to Khomitsky last year. You can either say that Buglioni has improved or you can say that his opposition has gotten a lot worse. I think it’s more of a case of Buglioni’s opposition becoming weaker, because most of the names he’s beaten are obscure fighters with little in the way of talent. In Buglioni’s last fight, he defeated journeyman Fernando Castaneda by a 5th round knockout last July in a one-sided mismatch.
“We have Buglioni figured out,” Chudinov said. “Coming to England and doing the same to Buglioni is no problem for me, no problem at all. The great Roy Jones is now in my corner and we are now an unbeatable team. When you look at Buglioni fight, he is far too easy to hit. Sergey Khomitsky smashed him inside six rounds. I have a far higher knockout percentage and I deliver much, much harder punches. He’ll be knocked out. I have trained like a machine for this fight. I will set an incredible pace for Buglioni that he cannot match. I have the strength and power to remove him when I’m ready.”
I think Buglioni is going to try and make it hard for Chudinov to land his shots by using an in an out type fighting style. Buglioni doesn’t have any lateral movement to his game. When he does move in circles around the ring, he appears to labor, as if he’s got rust in his joints and is carrying a large 100 pound backpack on his back. He does not move well at all. I don’t know that Buglioni’s in and out fighting style will work against a relentless pressure fighter like Chudinov.
Chudinov is trained by Roy Jones Jr., and he’ll likely know exactly what to do tonight.
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