Sebastian Fundora is putting all his effort into securing a fight with fellow title holder Terence Crawford, despite reports he was in talks to face Errol Spence Jr, the unified super-welterweight champion’s promoter said.
When Crawford (41-0-0 31 KO) became a four-weight world champion by beating WBA title holder Israil Madrimov in August, he also claimed the WBO’s interim belt, placing him in a mandatory position to challenge full champion Fundora (21-1-1 13 KO).
Later that month, the WBO ordered the fight between Fundora and Crawford, giving their respective teams 30 days’ notice to agree a deal before it was sent to purse bids. With Fundora also holding the WBC title, there is plenty of logic as to why Crawford would be interested in the bout; a win would put him one win and one belt away from becoming the first male fighter in history to become undisputed in three divisions.
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However, the Nebraskan’s priority is reportedly on securing a bout with unified super-middleweight king Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez – a fight that makes little sense beyond the enormous payday the pound-for-pound star would earn.
Despite the situation, Sampson Lewkowicz, who promotes Fundora, insists their priority is still on securing a bout with Crawford, even if it takes place after any potential bout with Canelo.
“It looks like Crawford only wants to fight Canelo,” Lewkowicz told BoxingScene. “If Canelo gets $100 million for the Crawford fight, he will take it and knock the shit out of Crawford. He’s not stupid. It’s an easy fight, and that’s it. It’s the end of Crawford’s career.
“If Canelo doesn’t take the Crawford fight, we’re ready to fight Crawford. All of our efforts are on Crawford. We have nothing else in mind. We want to fight Crawford. Sebastian believes that he will beat Crawford, and when he does, he will become a superstar. Sebastian has the balls and is a dangerous fight for anybody.”
Fundora became the 154-pound division’s unified champion in March when he defeated WBO title holder Tim Tszyu by split decision in a bout that also had the vacant WBC strap on the line. The 26-year-old Californian benefitted from an accidental elbow early in the fight that opened up a nasty cut on Tszyu’s forehead, and while the Australian fought on valiantly, he was severely debilitated.
Fundora had been expected to make his first title defense against former unified welterweight champion Spence, with their bout initially aimed for October. However, the fight was pushed, with Fundora saying in July that it was still on but “they just changing the date”. Since then, though, there have been no updates or announcements, suggesting that it’s no longer going ahead while Fundora waits on Crawford.
Spence has not fought since getting dominated by Crawford in their 147-pound undisputed title fight in July last year when he was stopped after seven rounds of one-way punishment.
Meanwhile, the other super-welterweight world title will be fought over on October 19 when IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev makes his first defense against Tszyu in Orlando.
