By Vadim Pushkin
According to Umar Kremlev, manager of 168-pound contender Fedor Chudinov (14-1, 10KOs), they are waiting for the World Boxing Association to appoint an opponent for a mandatory battle with the vacant WBA super middleweight title at stake.
In February, Chudinov lost what many felt was a controversial twelve round majority decision to Felix Sturm. One judge scored it 114-114, while the other two gave the German boxer the victory by a whisker with identical tallies of 115-113.
With the win Sturm snatched the WBA belt from Chudinov. After the outcome, Chudinov's handlers protested the decision and said there appeared to be some issues with the scoring and manipulation with the gloves provided to Chudinov.
The two sides were planning to have a rematch in the fall, due to a rematch clause in the contract. Before a third fight was finalized, both parties were informed that Sturm had failed drug test and came up positive for banned substance hydroxy-stanozolol. The doping test was taken after the fight.
In early May, Sturm and his team were required to open up his B-sample and run a test to confirm or eliminate the findings in the first exam. That was never done.
Since that time, Germany prosecutors have opened up a criminal case against Sturm - as the fighter has refused to answer them regarding the doping scandal. On top of that, Sturm has left Germany and moved his entire family to his home country of Bosnia, where he plans to resume his career despite the looming controversy.
Because of a nagging elbow injury, Sturm vacated the WBA title and informed the sanctioning body that he was unable to defend the belt. Sturm's future is now up in the air, while Chudinov is waiting for another crack at the world title. The loss suffered by Chudinov was never overturned by the sanctioning body or the German commission.
