“He wanted to fight, then he didn’t want to fight. Then he sent a rehydration clause,” Zayas told the InsideRingShow. “I feel like that was a lot of excuses for a guy who’s 6’5″. He’s the biggest guy in the division.”
Zayas said his team rejected the clause outright, noting the fight was not for the IBF title, which has a mandatory 10-pound rehydration rule, and was not staged in a jurisdiction where such limits are standard.
“That’s all that was said. ‘We’ll take the fight, but he’ll have to do a rehydration clause,'” Zayas said. “And we’re like, ‘We’re not doing that. It doesn’t make sense.’ We didn’t fight for the IBF, and we didn’t fight in London. It was not necessary.”
Fundora’s size has long been a talking point at 154 pounds, and the request stood out as he is one of the biggest fighters in the division.
Once the clause entered the conversation, the conversations stalled and never picked up again.
Zayas did not speculate on why the request was made, but his response made it clear that it is not something he is willing to negotiate on. For his part, it was a condition that closed the door on the fight before discussions ever moved beyond the basics.
This is a familiar outcome in modern boxing. Fights often fall apart before contracts are signed, not over purses or dates, but over details like weight restrictions and rehydration stipulations that quietly decide whether a bout ever gets out of the planning stage.
