Sebastian Fundora is now volunteering to move forward with a planned voluntary defense.
However, who he plans to face could determine whether he can retain his WBO junior middleweight title.
The Ring confirmed that Fundora (21-1-1, 13 knockouts) has been conditionally approved by the WBO for an optional defense. The decision came in lieu of a previously ordered title consolidation match against Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs). As previously reported by The Ring, both sides agreed to go their separate ways for at least one fight. The concession by Crawford freed Fundora to face an opponent of his team’s choosing.
One key stipulation to approve the fight was that the challenger must be currently ranked in the top-15.
Update on #FundoraCrawford “talks”:
Stated that the WBO accepted the agreement for Fundora to pursue a voluntary defence. However, must come against the Top 15 ranked opponent and that a fight against Spence will NOT be sanctioned as a WBO title defense.— Jake Donovan (@JakeNDaBox) October 10, 2024
It is thought that plans for a purposeful showdown against Errol Spence Jr. (28-1, 22 KOs) kills. Such a fight has been rumored since Fundora’s March 30 split decision win over Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) to win the WBO and vacant WBC 154-pound titles. Spence joined Fundora in the ring to personally issue his challenge, which was verbally embraced by Fundora.
However, Spence has not fought since a lopsided ninth-round loss to Crawford last July 29 in Las Vegas. The feat saw Crawford win The Ring Championship and fully unify all the alphabet titles at welterweight.
The lengthy layoff coupled with his last win coming in April 2022 left Spence out of the WBO rankings. He is currently ranked No. 1 by the WBC at junior middleweight, which would allow at least that title to be on the line.
Fundora now risks being stripped of his WBO should he agree to face Spence next. The demand to face a Top 15 contender was told directly to Fundora’s team by the WBO earlier this year.
The originally scheduled Fundora-Crawford bout was an extension of a decision that was applied under the conditional terms by the sanctioning body in March. It came in his approval for Fundora to challenge Tszyu at short notice. Fundora won their blood-soaked March 30 Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Prime pay-per-view headliner by split decision. He also picked up the vacant WBC 154-pound title with the win.
Crawford holds the WBA title and the interim WBO belt at 154.
Rather than a three-belt unification bout, Fundora and Crawford will instead head in separate directions.
Crawford has only fought once since his win over Spence. It came in his 154-pound debut, where he defeated Israil Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) on August 3 to win the WBA title and the vacant interim WBO belt.
No other fight since has crossed the mind of The Ring’s no. 3 pound-for-pound contender charms outside of a superfight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs).
The interest remains one direction for now. Alvarez—the reigning RING, WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight champion—had previously dismissed the bout when asked about it. He remains non-committal about that game or any other for now.
Fundora-Spence is tentatively targeted for the first quarter of 2025, should the fight move forward.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
