Pick it: Sebastian Fundora vs. Chordale Booker

When to watch: Saturday, March 22 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (midnight GMT)

How to watch: Amazon’s Prime Video

Why to watch: Few boxing fans, if any, were calling for Fundora’s first defense of his junior middleweight titles to come against Booker. Heck, many weren’t overly thrilled at the prospect of Fundora taking on Errol Spence either, despite Spence’s previous accomplishments as a former unified welterweight titleholder, given Spence’s inactivity and the damage he took against Terence Crawford in 2023. But the drawn-out discussions about Fundora-Spence never produced a fight, and so in stepped Booker. 

So this show is our pick of the week not because of the main event itself at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, but rather because of what it will hopefully set up: Bigger fights against the top names in a talented weight class.

Much has already changed since Fundora came in as a late replacement opponent against Tim Tszyu in March 2024, substituting for Keith Thurman. That night was a bloody brawl where both men suffered injuries – Tszyu fighting 10 rounds with a horrifying gash and blinding bleeding caused by an accidental elbow, Fundora going nearly the entire fight with a broken nose. Fundora, now 21-1-1 (13 KOs), seized the WBO title from Tszyu and picked up the vacant WBC belt in the process.

There was talk that Fundora might face Crawford next, though Spence seemed most likely given their PBC affiliation and that Spence had entered the ring after the Tszyu fight. But here we are a year later, and Fundora, a 27-year-old from Coachella, California, needs to put his career back in drive after idling in neutral for so long.

“All boxers train all year-round,” Fundora said on a media conference call a few weeks ago. “This is not a seasonal sport, so it’s just, continue to do what we do, and when the fight comes, we take it.”

As for Booker, 23-1 (11 KOs), his momentum could’ve come to a screeching halt three years ago. That’s when he was stopped in less than a round by middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams. Booker has spent the time since rebuilding, notching six straight wins. Last year he won a wide decision over the 23-5-1 Greg Vendetti and scored a third-round technical knockout over the 14-4 Brian Damian Chaves.

Booker, a 33-year-old from Connecticut, watched Fundora’s lone loss, a seventh-round knockout against Brian Mendoza in 2023. Booker says he’s also studied fights in which Fundora performed well.

“I'm not going in with just one game plan,” Booker said. “I have multiple things that I’m going to try to do to come out victorious. I’m not going to just only put pressure. I'm not doing one thing or another. I’m doing whatever it takes to win.”

The winner would ideally move forward with a unification bout against IBF titleholder Bakhram Murtazaliev; Crawford, who holds the WBA belt, has no plans to compete at 154lbs this year given his September challenge of super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. There are also contenders such as Vergil Ortiz, Serhii Bohachuk, Charles Conwell and Xander Zayas.

On the televised undercard, another junior middleweight contender – Jesus Ramos Jnr – will face late replacement Guido Schramm, and Terrell Gausha will meet Elijah Garcia in a crossroads fight for these two middleweights.

Ramos, 22-1 (18 KOs), is a 24-year-old from Arizona whose only loss was a controversial decision defeat to Erickson Lubin in September 2023. Ramos has won two straight since, including a ninth-round technical knockout of Johan Gonzalez last May (Gonzalez just sent Jarrett Hurd into retirement) and an eighth-round TKO of Jeison Rosario on the February 1 pay-per-view undercard of David Benavidez-David Morrell Jnr.

Schramm, 16-3-2 (9 KOs), is a 29-year-old originally from Argentina and now fighting out of Los Angeles. He has dropped two in a row, losing a majority decision to the aforementioned Gonzalez in November 2023 and then suffering a sixth-round knockout to a perpetual spoiler, Vladimir Hernandez, last June.

Garcia, 16-1 (13 KOs), is a 21-year-old from Phoenix who suffered his first setback last June on the undercard of Gervonta Davis-Frank Martin, dropping a split decision to the 18-3-1 Kyrone Davis. He’s since switched trainers and now has Bob Santos in his corner.

Gausha, 24-4-1 (12 KOs), is a 2012 Olympian who hasn’t quite reached the same heights of his teammates, most of whom went on to win world titles. The 37-year-old from Cleveland lost a decision to Erislandy Lara in 2017, fought to a draw with Austin Trout in 2019, was outpointed by Erickson Lubin in 2020, dropped Tim Tszyu early but lost on the scorecards in their 2022 bout, and lost widely to Carlos Adames last June.

More Fights to Watch

Saturday, March 22: George Kambosos vs. Jake Wyllie, plus two title fights (DAZN)

The broadcast begins at 4 a.m. Eastern Time (9 a.m. GMT).

Kambosos, 21-3 (10 KOs), moved up to junior welterweight and signed with Matchroom Boxing after getting stopped by Vasiliy Lomachenko in a lightweight title bout last May. Although Kambosos is a former lineal and unified lightweight champion, the 31-year-old hasn’t scored another major win since that upset of Teofimo Lopez in November 2021.

That hasn’t stopped him from being able to cash in. The native of Sydney, Australia, has performed in his home country for three of his last four appearances, all of them defeats: losing to Haney twice in Melbourne in 2022, then to Lomachenko in Perth last year. Sandwiched between those was a controversial majority decision win over Maxi Hughes in America in 2023.

Matchroom is going to squeeze what it can out of Kambosos, especially given that the promoter has other Australian fighters in its stable to feature on undercards and hopefully build into standalone stars.

Wyllie is a late replacement opponent for Daud Yordan, who pulled out for medical reasons less than a week before the fight. Wyllie, 16-1 (15 KOs), is a 24-year-old from Queensland, Australia. In November, Wyllie scored a TKO4 over the 23-1 Dylan Emery. A fight this past February ended in a no-contest when his opponent suffered a bad cut from a clash of heads.

The undercard at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney features two Australian titleholders: Skye Nicolson will defend her featherweight title against Tiara Brown, and Cherneka Johnson will put her bantamweight belt on the line in a rematch with Nina Hughes.

Nicolson, 12-0 (1 KO), continues to hope that Amanda Serrano will return to 126lbs. In the meantime, she will be taking on her mandatory challenger in Brown. Nicolson, who fought in the 2020/2021 Olympics, won the WBC’s interim featherweight belt in her eighth pro fight. When Serrano ditched the full WBC title, Nicolson then picked up the vacant belt in April 2024 with a wide decision victory over Sarah Mahfoud. She’s since defended it with decisions over Dyana Vargas and Raven Chapman.

Brown, 18-0 (11 KOs), will be taking a big step up in level of opposition. In January, she shut out the 22-17-4 Calista Silgado.

Johnson, 16-2 (6 KOs), seized the WBA title at 118lbs from Hughes last May via majority decision. But that wasn’t the initial announcement. Originally, Hughes was named as the victor, but the ring announcer had read the scores wrong. The win made Johnson a two-division titleholder; she also held a belt at 122lbs before losing it to Ellie Scotney in 2023.

Hughes, 6-1 (2 KOs), felt as if she had been robbed, and not just because of the announcer. “There’s got to be a rematch,” she said after the bout. “I didn’t lose that fight.”

Saturday, March 22: Lester Martinez vs. Joeshon James (ProBoxTV.com)

The broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time (10:30 p.m. GMT).

This fight, twice postponed at the last minute, is scheduled for the third time, this time as the main event at the National Orange Show Event Center in San Bernardino, California.

Martinez, 18-0 (15 KOs), is a 29-year-old super middleweight from Guatemala. Last June, he dominated Carlos Gongora en route to a unanimous decision. The question is whether he’s having trouble making 168lbs or if the illnesses that caused both postponements were just unfortunate, unrelated circumstances.

James is 9-0-2 (5 KOs). He hasn’t fought since February 2024, when he took a unanimous decision over Vaughn Alexander. James has fought mostly at or around middleweight, so while he will be the taller man in the ring, he may be undersized against Martinez.

The undercard will include Vladimir Hernandez vs. Isaias Lucero at junior middleweight, plus Jasmine Artiga facing Regina Chavez for a junior bantamweight world title.

We mentioned Hernandez, 16-6 (7 KOs), earlier in this article. Despite all of those losses, he has also scored several upsets, including a unanimous decision over Alfredo Angulo in 2020; a split decision over Julian Williams in 2021; a majority decision over the 13-0 Lorenzo Simpson in 2023; a sixth-round knockout of the 16-2-2 Guido Schramm last June; and a unanimous decision over the 13-1-1 Raul Garcia in September.

Some of Hernandez’s defeats have come against familiar names: Israil Madrimov (TKO6 in 2018); Souleymane Cissokho (UD8 in 2019); Jesus Ramos Jnr (TKO6 in 2022); and Troy Isley (UD8 in 2023).

Lucero, 19-2 (13 KOs), suffered both his defeats in 2023, dropping a split decision to the 10-3 Chester Parada Torales and then losing unanimously to Cissokho. Lucero has won three in a row, all by TKO against unheralded opposition, but he has impressed promoter Sampson Lewkowicz, who just signed the fighter to a deal.

The WBA’s vacant belt at 115lbs will be on the line for Artiga vs. Chavez.

Artiga, 12-0-1 (6 KOs), is ranked No. 7 by the sanctioning body. Chavez, 8-4-3 (1 KO), is ranked first. She lost a unanimous decision to the previous titleholder, Clara Lescurat, in February 2024.

(Note: BoxingScene.com is owned by Garry Jonas, who owns ProBox TV.)

Saturday, March 22: Maliek Montgomery vs. Jeremey Hill (DAZN)

The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (midnight GMT).

Montgomery, 20-0 (18 KOs), is a 29-year-old junior lightweight/lightweight from Georgia who now calls Las Vegas home. In 2024, he beat a pair of familiar but faded former contenders in Cesar Juarez (UD8) and Oscar Escandon (KO2), then dominated the 26-2-1 Sakaria Lukas en route to a fourth-round knockout win.

Hill, 21-3-1 (13 KOs), is a 32-year-old from New Orleans, Louisiana. His last defeat came in 2022, a third-round KO loss to lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla. Hill has gone 5-0-1 since, including an eight-round decision win last month against the 24-16-1 Dennis Contreras. The draw came in 2023 against the 23-5 Leonardo Padilla.

The undercard at Sycuan Casino Resort in Southern California features a number of prospects, as well as the continued rebuilding of Kurt Scoby, who has moved down to lightweight in the wake of last year’s upset loss to Dakota Linger.

Saturday, March 22: Junior Younan vs. Abel Mina (StarBoxing.tv)

The broadcast begins at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time (11:30 p.m. GMT).

Younan, 21-0-1 (13 KOs), is a super middleweight prospect who will be headlining for the third straight time at The Paramount in Long Island, New York. Younan, a 29-year-old from Brooklyn, has competed in recent years at 168 and 175. That draw came in 2018 against Ronald Ellis, who went on to lose to familiar names such as David Benavidez, Christian Mbilli and Erik Bazinyan. Younan’s last fight was in September, when he took out the 15-9 Alexis Gaytan in five rounds.

Mina, 18-3-1 (9 KOs), is a 32-year-old from Ecuador. In February 2024, Mina fought to a draw with Kamil Szeremeta, a past foe of Gennadiy Golovkin. Mina returned in January with a unanimous decision over the 5-1 Armando Fontalvo.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.