Gabriela Fundora promised to turn history into her story.
The unbeaten 22-year-old became the sport’s youngest undisputed champion with a seventh-round knockout of Gabriela Alaniz. A pair of knockouts prompted the stoppage at 1:40 of round seven Saturday at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
With the win, Fundora (16-0, 7 KOs)—who held the IBF belt—won The Ring Championship and WBC, WBA and WBO titles. She is the first ever undisputed flyweight champion and the youngest woman at any weight class.
Fundora and her team not only promised to make history, but even dressed appropriately for the occasion.
“This fight is dedicated to Oscar,” Fundora told DAZN’s Chris Mannix. “I wore gold in his honor.”
The reference was to Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions promotes Fundora with Sampson Lewkowicz.
Fundora quickly came inside, still making good use of her massive six inch height and reach. The jab was enough to keep Alaniz out of effective striking range. Fundora slipped a lot of the incoming, landing right hooks and straight left hands from the southpaw stance.
Alaniz made a fight of it in the third and fourth rounds.
The visiting Argentine connected with a left hook to briefly stun Fundora in the third. Fundora stormed back in the fourth, landing body shots. They set the stage for a right hook that cracked Alaniz up top. Alaniz responded with a left hook that buckled Fundora’s back leg, though she survived the series.
Fundora regained control in the middle rounds. Her stab was again key but she didn’t forgive the body either. Alaniz did her best to push past her opponent’s power and also plowed forward with one-two combinations.
It worked until it didn’t.
Fundora is one of the few women in the sport who always strives to close the show. She managed it with the power of her straight left hand. Alaniz protested the first strikeout call in the seventh, insisting that Fundora step on her left foot.
There was no dispute about the second strike. Alaniz hit the deck hard from another left hand. The competition was halted immediately afterwards.
“We trained for this,” Fundora insisted. “I told my father (Freddy Fundora, Gabriela’s head coach) that this was the shot I wanted to get the knockout with. And it was.”
The straight left was one of 112 strikes she threw out of 462 (24.2 percent).
Alaniz (15-2, 6 KOs) was 97-of-359 (27 percent) in defeat, the second in her last three fights. Her previous loss came under questionable circumstances, a questionable majority decision to Marlen Esparza last July 8 in San Antonio, Texas. Alaniz was the undefeated WBO titleholder at the time, but the questionable call ended her reign.
An immediate rematch was ordered by the WBO. Alaniz seized the moment and won a majority decision to claim The Ring, WBC, WBA and WBO belts.
They now all belong to Fundora.
“I think every fighter has to follow her heart and her ruthlessness,” De La Hoya said of his newest undisputed champion. “She’s a superstar in the making.”
The victory came in the same city where Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs), Gabriela’s older brother, also became a champion in 2024. Sebastian defeated undefeated Tim Tszyu to win the WBC/WBO 154-pound titles on March 30 at T-Mobile Arena.
As is always the case when they fight, one sibling accompanies the other in the ring. Sebastian proudly held Gabriela’s IBF title during the ring walk. The family now goes home with a lot more hardware.
Fundora has now won four title fights in a span of just 54 weeks. All but one have ended by knockout, including her IBF title fifth-round submission of Arely Mucino last October 21. Fundora then stopped undefeated Christina Cruz in the tenth and final round on January 27 in Phoenix. She went all ten rounds in a decision win over Daniela Asenjo on August 10 at the nearby Michelob ULTRA Arena.
The sport’s newest undisputed queen was determined not to let this one go to the judges.
“Listen to how relieved the crowd was,” Fundora pointed out. “That explains everything. I think everyone enjoys the knockout. I wouldn’t watch women’s boxing if there weren’t any knockouts. That’s what they deserved today.”
Fundora deserves all the awards that come her way during the year-end awards season. For now, she can take solace in the knowledge that her name is forever etched in the record books. There can only be one “first” – she is just that for the flyweight division, and has done so in a way that brings more fans to the sport.
UNDERMAP RESULTS
Bektemir Melikuziev rode a second-half surge to a split decision over David Stevens.
Scores were all over the place in their 12-round super middleweight contest. Stevens (14-2, 10 KOs) won 116-112 on the card of Chris Migliore. It was overturned by judges Dave “Not Carl” Moretti (118-110) and Zachary Young (117-111) for Melikuziev (15-1, 10 KOs).
There was confusion about the weight limit for the fight. It was marketed as a WBA super middleweight knockout. However, Melikuziev’s team insisted that their contract required a 170-pound limit.
Nevertheless, it is the eighth consecutive victory for Melikuziev. His lone loss was a June 2021, one-shot third-round knockout at the hands of Gabriel Rosado. Melikuziev avenged his lone career loss in a virtual shutout victory in September 2022.
Darius Fulghum (13-0, 11 KOs) resumed his knockout streak with a third-round stoppage of Christopher Pearson (17-5-1, 12 KOs).
The fight was a mismatch on paper, but an encouraging sign that Fulghum went straight on the attack. Pearson is a shell of his former self and has come simply to survive. He covered on the ropes as Fulghum went on the attack. Referee Michael Ortega saw enough and stopped the fight at 1:00 of the third round.
Rookie welterweight Joel Iriarte (5-0, 5 KOs) stayed perfect with a first-round knockout of Xavier Madrid (5-6, 2 KOs) in their DAZN opener. The 21-year-old from Bakersfield, Calif., turned pro in March. So far, he has ended every fight within two rounds.
