On February 20th in the German city of Oberhausen the title of world middleweight superchampion of the WBA version was taken from Chudinov by a controversial decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-113) and awarded to Sturm. The Russian side has not recognized the result of the fight and sent a protest to the WBA arbitrators’ decision and a request for the cancellation of the match results.
The Director General of the 'Patriot' promotion company, Kirill Schekutev, stated that the Russian side does not agree with the results of the fight: "We do not agree with the results of the fight, we took it very emotionally and extremely indignantly, as is evidenced by the headlines in the Russian press, as well as abroad. Here we had our independent judges, who observed the progress of the fight, as well as independent statistics, the computer count in boxing, I have this table with me. The table shows that Fyodor struck more blows, inflicted greater precision strikes, which, in principle, according to these statistics, Fyodor won on points. We start from these statistics. Now, in principle, all of the statements that we make in the first place are based on these data, plus on our independent experts and judges, who also awarded Fyodor a win on points in half of the rounds. That is, if you say so, Sturm won a maximum of three rounds."
According Schekutev, Chudinov's victory is indirectly confirmed by the photos from the press conference, where it can be seen that Sturm suffered much more damage than Chudinov.
"Many factors point to the fact that the victory of Sturm was undeserved and announced by unprofessional and unqualified judging," Kirill Schekutev thinks.
Fedor Chudinov himself stated that what happened did not break him, though there is still a feeling of resentment in his heart: "Every day we are faced with injustice. Unfortunately, this injustice, apparently, is politics or something else that is entering sport. I have respect for Felix Sturm. It was a very difficult, interesting fight for me. I have no gripes against him. But I am disappointed with the decision of the judges, I think this was unfair refereeing. Everything happens in life, and so you have to go through this as well. Thank God for that He gives me strength to get through such moments easily. I'm not disappointed at all, I do not want to give up boxing, or anything else. On the contrary, it gives me a huge boost for the next time not to give any chance to the judges or anyone to doubt in my victory."
The promoters of Chudinov promised to sue the WBA and Felix Sturm's team in the absence of a resolution to hold a rematch.
"I want to demonstrate in the ring, to prove that it was not a loss. I must prove it with work, not just saying I need to win in the ring. This time I was so convincing, to be honest, I was not ready for such a fraud. This time I'm ready, I'll know what I am doing, and I will not give in to doubt my victory. Regardless of the judicial decisions about gloves, about the judges' decision, I want a rematch no matter on what territory, I'm just going to be prepared a lot better," Chudinov stated.
