Felix Sturm Wins WBA Title Against Fedor Chudinov
Oberhausen, Germany (February 21st, 2016)– The veteran German, 37, was the underdog against the Russian champion, who had beaten him via a split decision last May to land the WBA belt.
Felix Sturm(40-5, 3, 18Kos) gave a much-improved performance in Oberhausen on Saturday night, working well behind a solid jab and certainly matching Chudinov in the first half of the contest.
But as had happened in their first encounter, Sturm – more naturally a middleweight – appeared to slow down and Fedor Chudinov (14-1, 10Kos) landed the more telling shots as an entertaining contest went on.
A cut to his right eye in the 10th did little to help the challenger’s cause and Chudinov finished the stronger.
However, two judges scored it 115-113 to Sturm with one calling it a 114-114 draw with the German becoming a five-time world champion as a stunned Chudinov was handed the first defeat of his professional career.
Sturm revealed after the fight that it could be time to hang up his gloves.
“Perhaps that was my last bout today – there was huge pressure,” he said.
“I’ll give it a bit of time. We want to come down from this first. But all in all, it was a nice way to sign off if that was it.”
COMMENTS
English