LAS VEGAS -- Sebastian Fundora has been one of the most exciting, and successful, fighters of this decade. Anyone who saw his 2022 dogfight with Erickson Lubin at the Virgin Hotel will never forget it. Nor will they ever want to miss another of Fundora's fights.
Fundora enters his WBC-WBO super welterweight title unification bout with Tim Tszyu on Saturday in the main event of a Premier Boxing Championship card on Prime Video at T-Mobile Arena with a 20-1-1 record and 13 KOs. The fight is also available for purchase on PPV.com.
Fundora said yes to fighting the unbeaten Tszyu less than two weeks before fight night when Keith Thurman had to pull out with a ruptured biceps that required surgery. That's the kind of fighter he is: Anyone, anywhere at any time. Those are the kind of boxers who should be revered because there aren't nearly enough of them with that attitude.
There is a huge question, though, that Fundora must answer as he heads into what is the most significant fight of his life: How can he rebound, not just from his first loss, but from getting knocked out? His last fight was nearly a year ago at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif., against Brian Mendoza.
Fundora was controlling the fight and seemingly on his way to a one-sided victory when disaster struck in the seventh round. He went to throw a left uppercut at the same time as Mendoza began to throw an overhand left. Mendoza's punch got there first, and Fundora was badly hurt.
He was briefly stopped in his tracks, with his arms down, and Mendoza landed a thunderous right to the chin that put him out.
Fundora hasn't fought since, and now he heads into a unification bout coming off a KO loss. It can't be good for one's mindset, though the affable giant from California's Coachella Valley shrugs it off.
“I was in control of the Mendoza fight, so I don’t want to change too much because of the result, and it doesn’t really matter to me what he did against Tszyu," Fundora said. "I’m just going to keep focusing on my game."
It's often difficult for fighters to rebound from their first defeat, particularly when they'd been so used to winning for so long. It's doubly difficult when that fighter was knocked out for the count of 10, as Fundora was.
It shows the competitiveness inside of him that he shrugged off the loss and eagerly accepted the fight with Tszyu, who defeated Mendoza by decision last year. But until he's in there competing, it's going to be difficult to know how he'll fare.
His sister, Gabriela, won the IBF flyweight title on Jan. 27, and that's motivated him to follow suit. The siblings are close and work together often. Instead of focusing on the negative, he's chosen to look at the bout from a positive point of view.
“I’ve been training hard all camp," he said. "We only had a little bit to fix after our last fight, but my Dad and my sister keep my mind straight. My sister, Gabriela, just became world champion, and now it’s my turn to go do the same. A win puts me back at number one in the division. That’s where I want to be. I have my eyes on all of the big names. This is the first stone in the Fundora legacy."
He was preparing to face Serhii Bohachuk on the undercard when Thurman was injured and pulled out. Fundora said he thought there were plenty of similarities between Bohachuk and Tszyu, but dismissed those as being a factor.
His mind is focused only on what he needs not only to get past Tszyu but to put himself in position to ultimately rule the roost at 154.
“Having the right preparation is very important, of course," he said. "But I don’t think it’s really an advantage that I was preparing for someone similar to Tszyu already. It’s about what happens when you step into the ring. Of course I believe I’m going to win this fight, but not because of an advantage like that. I want to win this fight, become unified champion and keep going from there. We want to keep moving up.”