By Alexey Sukachev
Moscow, Russia - Former light heavyweight world title challenger Nadjib Mohammedi should have had a hugely successful return to the super middleweight class with a career-lifting decision over former Super WBA champion Fedor Chudinov but... instead he became the victim of a highly controversial split decision loss, which has infuriated the crowd.
Both fighters missed much early on but then the Frenchman has finally found his distance, scoring with his jab, left uppercuts and hard hooks.
Rounds three to five were all Mohammedi's. Chudinov had a surge at a mid-point but the Iron Djib got bigger in later rounds.
The Frenchman just couldn't miss with his punches while WBA #1, IBF #5, WBC #9 Russian was gassed out and looked like a beaten man, getting more damage than giving back in return and missing badly.
The scores were ridiculous as the Russian judge Yuri Koptsev got it 118-111... for Mohammedi, while the foreign judges, including Andrey Baliasov of Ukraine, gave it to Chudinov (18-2, 12 KOs) with tallies of 116-112, 115-113.
With the scores being borderline criminal, the crowd intensely booed the newly crowned WBA international 168lb champion and cheered widely for Mohammedi (40-6, 23 KOs), who was on a wrong side of clear hometown loss.
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Heavyweight Shigabudin Aliev moved to 3-0, 3 KOs, scoring four knockdowns in round two of his TKO 2 win over Irakli Gvinianidze (10-9, 9 KOs). Time was 2:23.
