Chudinov-Groves set to fight for vacant title on Brook-Spence undercard

Today promoters from Team Sauerland and Matchroom Boxing announced that Fedor Chudinov (14-1, 10 KOs) will be taking on George Groves (25-3, 18 KOs) for the WBA’s vacant super middleweight title on May 27. The fight will appear as the co-feature for Kell Brook’s welterweight title defense against Errol Spence at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England.

"I'm delighted to add another big world title fight to this show on May 27," Hearn said. "Since the Badou Jack defeat [in September 2015], George has worked his way back into position and is now on the verge of finally capturing that world title. It's a very hard fight against a very tough Chudinov, and I expect it to be an all-action affair. There will be 26,000 packed into Bramall Lane on May 27, and British fight fans can expect another epic night."

This fight will mark Groves’ fourth chance at a world title after coming up short in his three previous attempts, where he was twice stopped by Carl Froch and then lost a decision to Badou Jack. Despite that, Groves, 29, believes that the work he’s been putting in with trainer Shane McGuigan is paying dividends and that he’ll finally get over the hump.

Chudinov, 29, is most recently coming off a majority decision loss to Felix Sturm in February 2016 where he lost his WBA title. Sturm, however, would fail a post-fight drug test and decided to vacate the title before he would be stripped. Now Chudinov is getting a shot to recapture the title that got away.

Most notable, however, is perhaps the fact that the WBA will be going against it’s own pledge to reduce its number of world champions by sanctioning this fight for a world title. The sanctioning routinely held three champions per division (“super”, “regular”, and “interim”) which is about as ridiculous as it sounds. And although the WBA recently whittled down its super middleweight titlists to only Tyron Zeuge, there will be a second 168lb titlist within the organization once the WBA awards the Chudinov-Groves winner with it’s “super” desigination.