By Scott Gilfoid: Once beaten WBA interim 168lb champion Vincent Feigenbutz (20-1, 19 KOs) will be defending his title next month against #11 IBF contender Giovanni De Carolis (23-5, 11 KOs) in a 12 round fight at the Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
It’s a decent but hardly great fight for the 20-year-old Feigenbutz. He was hoping to get a title shot against WBA “regular” super middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov, but he’s currently busy facing #4 WBA Frank Buglioni in a little over a week from now on September 26th at the Wembley Arena in London, England.
Feigenbutz is also interested in facing former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm, but there doesn’t appear to be any mutual interest on Sturm’s part in taking that fight.
Feigenbutz will need to wait on his title shot against the 27-year-old Chudinov, because if he’s able to beat Buglioni on September 26th, he’ll then be facing Sturm in a rematch.
Chudinov defeated Sturm by a 12 round split decision last May in a close fight in Germany. However, the World Boxing Association is going to allow the 36-year-old Sturm to get a rematch with Chudinov rather than letting the Chudinov vs. Feigenbutz fight take place like the 20-year-old German wishes.
“I do not understand all the fuss. Also another world governing body, the WBO has ordered in the past, a rematch between Arthur Abraham and the Englishman Paul Smith – although the first fight was a clear winner,” Sturm said to gnp1.de.
It’s unclear whether Feigenbutz will get a shot at the winner of the Sturm – Chudinov rematch. My guess is no if Sturm wins that fight. Sturm reportedly is interested in facing WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham in what would be a German vs. German fight, and it would obviously do well in German.
The World Boxing Organization currently isn’t going to get the Sturm vs. Abraham fight take place due to Sturm not being ranked in the top 15 by the WBO organization at this time. But if Sturm can capture the WBA 168lb title from Chudinov in a rematch, it will clear a path for Sturm to get the big money unification fight against Abraham in 2016.
The WBO would likely allow the Sturm-Abraham unification fight to take place. The sanctioning bodies usually let the unification fights take place over normal title defenses. But even if the WBO said no to an Abraham vs. Sturm unification fight, you can bet that the fight will take place anyway but without either of their titles on the line.
“We have a contract with Chudinov and will fight to the last. Vincent the chance has earned on the record,” said Feigenbutz’s promoter Kalle Sauerland.
With Feigenbutz’s win over Mauricio Reynoso last July, he earned the fight against Chudinov for the title. The win over Reynoso gave Feigenbutz the interim WBA middleweight title, so he’s supposed to be fighting Chudinov at this point.
“It’s a dream come true! I will repay the trust my promoter Team Sauerland and their TV partners have shown in me with a great performance on October 17,” said Feigenbutz about his fight against the 31-year-old De Carolis on October 17th.
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