On the same Moscow card on Saturday night that Oleksandr Usyk made boxing history with a masterful performance to win the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament – becoming the first man to unify all four of the division’s belts in the process – boxing fans witnessed one of the worst judging decisions of the year: and, indeed, recent years.
Nadjib Mohammedi was a decided underdog facing home fighter and former WBA ‘Super’ World super middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov.
The French veteran had recently moved down a weight division after a rough spell at light heavyweight which saw him get obliterated in three rounds by Sergey Kovalev in a World title fight and then in one round less by Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a ‘Knockout of the Year’ candidate.
Chudinov was on a run of three straight wins following his 2017 title fight defeat to George Groves in which the granite-jawed Russian was stopped on his feet in the sixth round, never going down despite being hit with everything but the kitchen sink by ‘The Saint’.
Common wisdom suggested that Chudinov’s power, high-volume attack and durability would be too much for Mohammedi and his less-than-sturdy chin.
An early-rounds blowout in Chudinov’s favour would not have been a surprise – instead, he received a thorough boxing lesson from Mohammedi who, after the first two rounds, simply took over and out-fought and out-thought his opponent the whole way through.
Mohammedi’s style is characterised by awkward, herky-jerky movement and a tendency to duck his head low in ungainly fashion. It gave Chudinov fits though and, while coming forward, he struggled to land anything clean on his opponent, loading up in frustration and missing badly. Meanwhile, Mohammedi peppered Chudinov with shots from the outside and landed all the eye-catching blows, including a lovely uppercut which rocked the Russian’s head back in round five.
The pattern continued through the middle rounds with Mohammedi using his superior hand speed to catch a painfully-slow Chudinov from all manner of angles. Chudinov’s work-rate dropped, seemingly confused by the puzzle being posed by Mohammedi, but also feeling the heat after wasting so much energy with shots that hit nothing but air.
By the late rounds, it was Mohammedi who was on the front foot; backing up Chudinov and landing 3-4 punch combinations without receiving any return fire. He started to target the body with more frequency – a wise strategy considering how zapped Chudinov was at this stage. He took the shots grimly, but they clearly resonated.
As the bell rang to signal the end of the fight, Mohammedi raised his right hand in triumph, barely a mark on his face, while Chudinov returned to a glum-faced corner without celebrating: lumped up around his eyes, a thoroughly-beaten man.
With Mohammedi having seemingly out-thrown and out-landed Chudinov – including the more effective punches – in almost every round, it was a near-landslide on this writer’s scorecard. Other observers had the fight closer, but still had Mohammedi winning by a clear margin.
You can therefore understand the incredulous reaction that erupted across the Olimpiyskiy Arena when judges’ cards of 115-113, 110-118 and 116-112 were announced for a ludicrous split decision in Chudinov’s favour.
The ‘victor’ was visibly surprised – a look which quickly turned to sheepishness – while boos and whistles rang out from the hometown crowd that had cheered him into the arena, reserving their cheers for a disbelieving Mohammedi who walked around the ring wagging his finger in protest at the travesty he had just been dealt
Let’s not mince our words: there was no incompetence at play here, just bare-faced corruption.
On a night of celebration – for a sublime main-event-performance, the making of boxing history and the WBSS as a concept – it was a depressing reminder of the sport’s ugly side.
Nadjib Mohammedi’s move down to super-middleweight at this late stage in his career was arguably his last chance to reinvent himself as a factor at World level. He travelled to his opponent’s back yard and produced the performance of his life that should have been rewarded with a career-best win. Instead he got robbed blind by individuals dressed up as boxing judges.
By a sorry twist of fate, the fight and its outcome took place less than 24 hours after another egregious fight decision on the other side of the world, Mattice-Hamazaryan, also ruled as a split decision win for the home fighter. The decision was so outrageous that Showtime commentator Steve Farhood labelled it as the worst he had seen in the network’s history.
In an ideal world, investigations would follow, heads would roll, decisions would be overturned and the victims of wrong-doing compensated.
We are after all talking about a sport where men and women make untold sacrifices and place their lives on the line for our entertainment, yet the outrage rarely amounts to more than lip service. The destroyed livelihoods, broken bodies, crushed spirits and forgotten names are subsequently swept under the carpet and eventually make their way into the dustbin of boxing history. Few activities have the power to inspire such intensity of emotions among its devotees as boxing does: yet, in a perverse distortion of logic and morality, generate so little by way of effective action when injustice strikes.
No-one is pretending that stardom, riches and a place in the Hall of Fame beckoned for Mohammedi, the latest victim of this injustice.
At the very least though, he deserved a fair shake on Saturday night… and surely that is not too much to ask for?
Article by: Paul Lam
Follow Paul on Twitter at: @PaulTheWallLam