Gabriela Fundora already stands miles ahead of where any other fighter in her boots deserves to be.
The undisputed women’s flyweight champion and boxing’s youngest-ever undisputed champ of the four-belt era, Fundora added to her growing canon Saturday with a seventh-round destruction of Marilyn Badillo in Oceanside, California.
Now 16-0 (8 KOs), Fundora, 23, has achieved in under four years as a professional more than nearly any fighter – man or woman – could even reasonably hope to dream for their careers. She has the power, the record, the standout size – at 5ft 9in, she’s an incredibly tall flyweight – the demeanor and the looks to be a bona fide American sports star, all of which raises a question:
Why isn’t she?
By any athletic and professional measure, Fundora is a paragon within boxing. Yet she is still best known to many fans of the sport as the younger sister of unified junior middleweight titleholder Sebastian Fundora. Saturday was her first main event, and although she performed brilliantly, a rough estimate of the crowd at Frontwave Arena counted only about 1,000 attendees. That’s not exactly the stuff that lands you on the front of cereal boxes.
To her credit, Fundora appeared to enjoy her moment and seemed genuinely thankful for the opportunity when discussing her first show as a headliner with DAZN’s Chris Mannix in the ring after her fight.
“Hey, how you guys like it today?” Fundora asked the crowd, which was boisterous in response despite its numbers. “This is, this is amazing. I’m glad to be headlining. We’re Golden Boy’s first female to headline a show – another [piece of] history made in the books.”
Fundora and her promoters are making the usual moves to angle her toward stardom, including a training camp visit with the troops at Camp Pendleton – practically walking distance from the Oceanside venue. When Mannix asked her about the perks of main-event status – a bigger dressing room, a dedicated fight introduction – Fundora had an immediate answer.
“I actually just want to thank the color guard at Camp Pendleton for having them come,” she said. “I just want to thank all the troops that are currently serving or did serve.”
Star-making is far from an exact science in any industry. But one ingredient that may be forgotten – especially in boxing, and in particular for the women – is time.
Fundora is just getting started at this. Saturday was her first main event and Frontwave Arena’s first boxing show. Badillo, despite coming in at 19-0-1, was a virtual unknown outside Mexico. Although Fundora is active for a world-class fighter, winning over the public by performing just three times in a calendar year is a real trick to pull.
Fundora can take heart in the recent business done by Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, who in 2022 put on the first women’s headliner at New York City’s Madison Square Garden – and sold it out. When they fought again last year, they received second billing only behind the massive Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight – and courted a whole new audience with a fantastic fight broadcast for free on Netflix.
A willingness (and ability) to change divisions – Fundora has discussed moving both up or down – will be an important asset for her moving forward. Claressa Shields has had to move up and down the dial, and even outside the sport (MMA), to build her audience.
Fundora needs a foil, and the reality is that, for now, there are relatively few elite fighters in the women’s ranks. If she can’t become a star by unifying all the belts in one division, it may take two. Or three. Or a weight cut – or gain – to find an opponent worthy of sharing a ring with her.
Don’t forget: It took Floyd Mayweather Jnr years to hitch on as a mainstream star. Sometimes it just takes time. Fundora has that – and plenty more in her toolbox – to eventually make it happen.
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.