Frank Buglioni’s WBA Super Middleweight title challenge against champion Fedor Chudinov has been postponed because of an injury to the Russian. The Chudinov vs. Buglioni clash was scheduled for Friday July 24th at the SSE Arena, Wembley, but Chudinov has been forced to withdraw because of a broken nose sustained in sparring.
Chudinov, from Serpukhov, Russia, won the title when he upset Felix Sturm in Germany in May and wanted to come to England to face Buglioni in his first title defense to avenge his brother Dmitry’s loss to Chris Eubank Jr in February.
Buglioni, who’s has been training hard in Dublin with Steve and Paschal Collins ahead of his dream world title shot, will not see his hard work go to waste and will still fight on the show as he awaits a new date to face Chudinov.
He will still feature on a stacked card alongside stars Mitchell Smith, Lewis Pettitt, Ovill McKenzie, Jamie Cox and Gary Corcoran all in championship fights.
Buglioini said, “This is a real gutter and I’m bitterly disappointed. It’s frustrating to know that I have to wait a little longer until I get to Chudinov, but the main thing is I will get him. I would question, though, how Chudinov broke his nose if he was wearing the correct head protection with bars to protect his nose? My training has been perfect up to now and so is the weight so it’s such shame this has happened now.”
Promoter Frank Warren said, “It’s a real shame that Fedor has suffered this injury with only two weeks to go until the fight, but this is boxing and injuries happen. It doesn’t make it any easier on Frank who has been training his heart out in Ireland, but he will still fight on the show against a new opponent and Fedor is locked in to fight Frank next.”
Chudinov’s promoter Vlad Hrunov added, “Fedor is devastated to have suffered this injury so close to the fight as he was looking forward to coming to England and defending his world title for the first time and avenging his brother’s loss. When Fedor has recovered we will come to England and honour our obligation and fight Buglioni.”
