After 12 hard rounds, Tim Tszyu’s face was still covered with blood and Sebastian Fundora’s nose was still spouting it.
Their violent March fight last year was one of the best and most dramatic of 2024, and Fundora won an upset decision at the T-Mobile in Las Vegas.
The tall junior middleweight from Coachella in California scored the win of his career, but asked what impressed him about Tszyu, the 27-year-old is hard-pressed to give the Australian too much credit.
“Nothing, nothing,” Fundora tells BoxingScene when asked what he thought was good about Tszyu. “I was just focused on what I could do and on my win.”
Going into the first fight, it was Tszyu who was supposedly on the cusp of super-fights, but coming out it was Fundora who seemed to have the more favorable options.
An early and accidental clash – between Tszyu’s scalp and the tip of Fundora’s elbow – dramatically changed the course of the fight, but Fundora pays no mind to those who make that claim.
This time, it is Fundora who has the momentum and their roles have been reversed.
“Honestly, I’m just not worried about nothing, but I’m just focused on this fight and hope it brings out the best [in Tszyu],” Fundora says.
“I don’t rate him. I’m not a rater. I’m a boxer myself, so I only can rate myself. I work with myself only and that’s all I can speak for.”
Asked whether he felt the cut changed the fight, Fundora says: “I don’t think so. It was just the first two rounds. The fight was a 12-round fight, so I felt I won that fight pretty easy.”
The one thing that the two boxers have in common is their enthusiasm to face the best. Tszyu found himself straight in another title fight with current IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev, losing in dramatic fashion. Fundora had actually come in at short notice to replace Keith Thurman against Tszyu.
Fundora only reluctantly gives Tsyzu credit for his pursuit of the best.
“Why not?” Fundora shrugs. “We all try to become champions and we all want to be great in this sport.”
Then, he adds: “I felt my career was very tough as well. They never really gave me any easy fights. But if you want to become big in this sport, you have to take the tough fights.”
It looked like Fundora was heading into a mandatory title defense against Xander Zayas before the Tszyu rematch was announced. Fundora says he doesn’t make the decisions, just that his opponents are lined up and it’s his job merely to sweep them to one side.
“I don’t sit up there at the table,” he continues. “I don’t sit at the table with the promoters and the big shots and all these guys. They tell me, ‘Hey, you’re gonna fight this guy next’ and I just tell them, ‘Okay.’”
Fundora handed back his WBO belt, that he would have retained by defeating Zayas, and instead faces Tszyu with his WBC strap on the line.
There often comes a point, in modern boxing, when beltholders have to choose between championship fights and big fights. The two are no longer mutually exclusive.
“Yes, they’re not always the same thing but I think it just depends what’s the better option at the time,” Fundora reasons. “We have big names in the division, big names with no belts, too. So we’ll see whatever I favor at the time. I don’t dream of fighting anybody [big names] like that. As of right now, there’s no one really in my division that catches my attention but I think I’m pretty sure I am a favorite name in a lot of people’s minds. There’s great names in this division.”
But there is no one like the gangling Fundora, who made such short work of Chordale Booker in March, stopping him in four rounds. And Fundora knows he stands out from the crowd.
“Oh, I definitely recognize that,” he goes on. “I think the fans recognize that. That’s the more important thing, that the fans recognize that I’m different. I’m something different in this division; in this sport. So I just continue to do what I’ve been doing and do good.”
Junior middleweight is arguably the hottest weight class in the sport today, but Fundora doesn’t overly think about who might be on his horizon. Tszyu comes first, on Saturday at the MGM Grand, of course, and on a bill he shares with Manny Pacquaio, who is returning to face Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title.
The Las Vegas crowds will likely swell for the legendary “Pacman,” and that is something that Fundora is becoming accustomed to in with his own fame. Life in the public eye is tricky enough; it’s more complicated still when you’re a 6ft 6ins moving target, although that is something he is becoming more used to and sometimes even enjoys.
“I do. Maybe in the beginning, not as much,” he explains. “No, I didn't like it. It’s just hard to get adjusted. But now we’ve been here for a little while in this limelight, I’m just getting comfortable with it.”
He also cannot disguise his height, something the 6ft 9ins heavyweight Tyson Fury has always pointed out when it comes to fame and his private life. When you’re that tall, it’s harder to remain anonymous.
“No, you can’t,” Sebastian smiles.
“I went to buy my sister a birthday present recently in the mall. And of course, my height alone will just get eyes, but then there was a WBC shirt, and I have a WBC dog tag on my keychain and those things are out. And of course, I guess it gives another reason to come and stop me. Like, ‘Oh, you’re the boxer, you’re from there.’ ‘Oh, yeah. I guess I am.’”
The Booker victory Fundora eased to in March served to emphasize the level Fundora is now operating at. It is something the self-assured Californian was aware of, but something he believes reinforced his standing to the fans.
Away from the ring, Fundora has hunted all his life. He walks his dogs. He trains with his dad, Freddy, and alongside his world champion sister, Gabriela, one of the best female fighters on the planet.
Whether it’s his own fights or his sister’s, Fundora says nerves are never as issue.
“I don’t get nervous for either,” he says. “I see her work all the time. She’s a champion, she’s undisputed champion for a reason. And then me, I mean, I’m doing my job, of course.”
What about pre-fight fear?
“Not in my family,” he says. “We’re immune to it.”
