Fedor Chudinov will make the second defense of his World Boxing Association (WBA) Gold Super Middleweight title against South African Ryno Liebenberg at the Sibur Arena in St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday.

The Russian gold champion comes from a draw against the experienced Isaac Chilemba in a non-title fight. The 33-year-old fighter won the belt in December 2019 with a victory over Frenchman Hassan N’Dam and defended it once against Umar Sadiq in September last year.

The Russian boxer is looking for a new world title shot, as he already had it in May 2017. However, on that occasion he was unable to take advantage of it and lost by knockout to the now retired George Groves. Chudinov has worked hard and now he will have to beat Liebenberg to get a little closer to that shot.

For his part, the South African challenger is 37 years old and is the WBA Pan-African Champion. He will be looking to climb a step up in this challenge against the Russian and put his name on the world boxing map this Friday.

The weigh-in ceremony will take place on Thursday. Once they both weigh the 168-pound max weight limit, they will be cleared for the bout.

Chudinov has a record of 23 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw, and 16 KOs. Liebenberg, on the other hand, has 21 wins, 7 losses, 1 draw, and 14 KOs.