Standing tall: Gabriela Fundora tramples Marilyn Badillo

OCEANSIDE, California – Relentless, merciless and without a qualified peer at this hour, Gabriela Fundora stepped up to the task of becoming the first woman to headline a Golden Boy Promotions’ main event Saturday, scoring a technical knockout of Marilyn Badillo in the seventh round.

“I knew the stoppage was going to come. It was just how I was going to place it,” said Fundora, 16-0 (8 KOs) and the undisputed flyweight champion.

“People like home runs. People like touchdowns. It’s boxing: People like knockouts.”

The sister of men’s unified junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora, 23-year-old Gabriela now has just one fewer knockout than the combined total of renowned lightweight champion Katie Taylor and the proclaimed “GWOAT,” Claressa Shields.

The southpaw Fundora immediately wielded her powerful weapon by sizing up Badillo with the left and whipping it to the challenger’s face in the first round.

Fundora said it was during the first that she felt she had solved Mexico's Badillo 19-1-1 (3 KOs), who was seeking to duck and move inside.

“That’s Boxing 101," Fundora said. “The jab’s always there.

“I stayed on her. She’d do movement to get a break, but like I told you, we train every round for a knockout.”

Fundora compounded the abuse with combinations in the second, defusing Badillo’s ability to get inside and brawl. Kept at bay by the stinging left, Badillo was left to wait for offerings that usually fell short.

Fundora’s jab heightened the difficulty for Badillo, who continued eating lefts in the fifth, ducking in to hold and delay further damage.

In the sixth, Fundora slammed two hard lefts to Badillo’s head and another to her rib cage, expanding an insurmountable scorecard lead.

Before the seventh, Fundora’s father-trainer, Freddy Fundora, advised her to finish the work.

The fighter uncorked three consecutive lefts to Badillo’s head, the second of which sent the challenger to the canvas. Referee Rudy Barragan then waved the fight off on the advice of Badillo’s corner.

With 105lbs titleholder Yokasta Valle sitting ringside, Fundora said she’s capable of moving down or up in weight.

“That’d be awesome to go to a different weight class and collect some more belts,” she said.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.