It didn’t last long, but Sebastian Fundora and Jorge Cota produced the “war” they promised Saturday night.

The 6-feet-6 Fundora and Cota began hammering away at each other as soon as their scheduled 12-round, 154-pound fight started at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The taller, longer Fundora eventually wore down the courageous Cota, hurt him with punishing punches and stopped him in the fourth round.

There weren’t any knockdowns during the three-plus rounds of action, but Fundora was beating up Cota when referee Ray Corona stopped their fight. The battered, bloodied Cota protested the stoppage and had just landed a flush left hand when Corona stepped between them and stopped their fight at 2:35 of the fourth round on the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Chris Arreola undercard.

The 23-year-old Fundora (17-0-1, 12 KOs), of Coachella, California, has won four fights in a row since his 10-round split draw with Cincinnati’s Jamontay Clark (15-2-1, 7 KOs) in August 2019 in Minneapolis. The 33-year-old Cota (30-5, 27 KOs), of Los Mochis, Mexico, lost by knockout for the fourth time in his 11-year, 35-fight pro career.

Fundora and Cota were first scheduled to fight December 5 in Arlington, Texas, but Cota contracted COVID-19 while training and withdrew from their fight. Fundora overwhelmed Cota’s late replacement, Ghana’s Habib Ahmed (28-2-1, 19 KOs, 1 NC), who lost by second-round technical knockout on the Errol Spence Jr.-Danny Garcia undercard at AT&T Stadium.

On Saturday night, a right hook by Fundora landed just before the halfway point of the fourth round. Fundora continued to hurt Cota, who tried to fight out of the trouble until Corona stepped between them.

Fundora nailed Cota with two rights to his body just before the one-minute mark of the third round. Fundora landed multiple head shots several seconds thereafter, continued to work inside and caught Cota with a left uppercut just before the third round concluded.

Cota and Fundora fought inside throughout the second round. Fundora unloaded on Cota while he was trapped in a corner with just over a minute to go in the second round.

Fundora and Cota landed numerous flush punches in a fast-paced, action-packed first round.

Cota came at Fundora from a southpaw stance as soon as their fight started. Fundora quickly drilled Cota with a left hand, but Cota came back to catch Fundora with a left and then a right less than a minute into the opening round.

Fundora landed a straight left just after the halfway point of the opening round. Cota caught Fundora with a left hook and a left uppercut in the final minute of the first round.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.