Buglioni warns champion Chudinov against taking him lightly

26 September 2015 09:56

Frank Buglioni believes that his shock world-title fight emerged because WBA super-middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov sees him as an 'easy option'.

The 26-year-old Briton challenges Chudinov at Wembley Arena on Saturday in only his 20th professional fight.

He had most recently laboured to only a draw against domestic rival Lee Markham when the opportunity to fight Chudinov arose, and had also previously lost convincingly to Ukraine's Sergey Khomitsky.

Russia's Chudinov, 28, was forced to postpone the fight that was first scheduled for July 24 after suffering a broken nose - when Buglioni instead fought, and stopped in six rounds, journeyman Fernando Castaneda - and the challenger has warned the champion that he has misread his potential.

"I think they've looked for the easy option and you know that in life when you take the easy option it usually backfires on you," Buglioni said.

"He thinks I'm an easy option and he's looking at the Khomitsky fight [a sixth-round stoppage defeat] and getting a lot of confidence from it, but when he gets in there he will realise I'm a year on and a completely different fighter."

Chudinov's promoter, Wlad Hrunov, taunted Buglioni by revealing that the champion had been sparring with Khomitsky.

If the Briton's reaction, and that of his trainers, Steve and Paschal Collins, suggested anything it was that reminders of that defeat remain a sensitive subject, but it was Buglioni's inability to defend himself on that night in April 2014 that ultimately led to him leaving his London base to work with the Collins brothers at the Celtic Warriors gym in Dublin.

Since then, he believes, he has significantly improved as a fighter, and he also insisted that even if Khomitsky - who he also wanted to use as a sparring partner ahead of Saturday's fight, unaware he was working with his opponent - can provide in-depth knowledge of what it takes to defeat him, the Ukrainian's perception of his abilities are effectively out of date.

"Khomitsky is not going to do him any favours, he's nothing like me," Buglioni said.

"Khomitsky doesn't box like me, he's not the same stature as me, Khomitsky would have been decent sparring for me, but he didn't want to come over. What can he give them?

"He can give them Frank Buglioni a year ago, without all the knowledge and experience I have gained. I'm praying that is the case and it is his main sparring partner, because if it is he's come right unstuck and he's in more trouble than he realises."

Source: PA