Sebastian Fundora Wins But Now Has A Difficult Decision To Make

The best way to describe Saturday night’s unified junior middleweight title fight between Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) and Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) was “Blood Bath”. It wasn’t a pretty site, and both fighters were literally covered in blood, but in the end, Fundora’s hand was raised, making him the new unified junior middleweight champion.

As soon as the fight began, Fundora wasted no time establishing his right jab from the southpaw stance. Tszyu, being the crafty fighter he is, would use brilliant footwork to get close enough to land his straight right hand. It seemed as if Tszyu figured out Fundora almost instantly, and he would be on his way toward a dominant victory until the end of the second round came about.

Tszyu broke Fundora’s nose early in the second round, and blood was flowing out of his nose like a faucet. Tszyu kept bringing the pressure and Fundora didn’t know what adjustments to make. Then, towards the end of the round, Tszyu would dip in close and hit Fundora’s elbow with the top of his forehead. In real-time, it was hard to see that anything happened, but when Tszyu sat down on his stool in between rounds, the blood was just gushing out of his head. The cut was nasty and deep, but it was on top of his head, so the hope was that it wouldn’t bother his vision.

That hope was short-lived as seconds into the third round, the blood was flowing so much from his head that Tszyu was wiping his face almost every three seconds so that he could see. Afterward, Tszyu reflected on the moment that changed the flow of the fight. “These things happen. My momentum was rolling in the first two rounds, and then boom, you’re blinded completely. This is boxing. It’s part of the sport.”

For the rest of the fight, Tszyu fought blind and missed a ton of punches while getting countered with Fundora’s. Still, Tszyu, although frustrated and nervous, stuck with the game plan and used the body attack to get his straight right hand through Fundora’s guard. On the other hand, Fundora used every bit of Tszyu being compromised to his advantage and would land his 1-2 down the middle while mixing a body attack. Both men fought bravely, but one could only imagine what the outcome would be if Tszyu didn’t have blood in his eyes for most of the fight.

Sebastian Fundora Has Some Tough Choices To Make

Before Fundora won the fight on Saturday night, other things were happening in the background that would affect the winner and who he faced next. Unified welterweight champion Terence Crawford used his WBO super champion status to become the mandatory challenger for the junior middleweight title. There were also rumors that Tszyu’s manager began negotiations with Crawford for a potential fight in the summer. At the same time, Errol Spence Jr popped out of hiding and posted on X that he wanted next and would be in Las Vegas to see the fight.

Then you have the WBC, who claimed immediately after Thurman pulled out of the fight and Fundora stepped in that the Tszyu-Fundora winner would face the winner of Serhii Bohachuk (24-1, 23 KOs) & Brian Mendoza (22-4, 16 KOs). The President of the WBC, Mauricio Sulaiman, also mentioned that the negotiations would have to take place almost immediately after the fight. The last thing lingering is that Tszyu has a rematch clause that he can choose to exercise immediately.

After Fundora’s fight, Spence Jr went into the ring to make it clear that he still wants the winner. Spence said, “It’s time to get it on. He’s got the big dog now. It’s my first time seeing him in person. He’s got good height, but we’ll break him down.” That almost indicated that the fight was happening, but Crawford then jumped on X and posted, “You lost sir. Gotta work yo way back up.” The President of the WBO, Paco Valcarcel, Esq, supported Crawford’s words and posted on X “…Next week WBO will order negotiations for Fundora vs Crawford.”

So what does Fundora do? If he fights Crawford, the WBC will likely strip him of the title. If he fights Spence, the WBO will likely strip him. If Fundora rematches Tszyu, will he be stripped of both titles? This is a weird scenario, and one Fundora will have to figure out with him likely being stripped of one of the titles, if not both (depending on which of the three routes he takes). Unfortunately, Fundora won’t have time to enjoy his victory as that decision will have to be made soon, making the next few weeks very interesting.

My Three Cents

Fundora and Tszyu left it all in the ring to include some DNA. The fans deserve to see the rematch next without wondering what would have happened if all the blood wasn’t involved in the fight. But it’s boxing, so we will likely get Fundora facing Spence, who suffered a brutal beatdown at the hands of Crawford last summer.

Abraham Gonzalez

Abraham Gonzalez is the founder of FightsATW. His journalistic work has been published and used across several platforms to include online, network TV and promotional companies. He is an American Public University alumnus and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). Abraham was the Managing Editor for NYFights, Big Fight Weekend, contributed to FanSidedMMA and ProBoxTV.

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