WBC junior middleweight champion Fundora called Thurman a future Hall of Famer and suggested a win over the former welterweight titleholder would raise his own standing in the sport.
“He’s a future Hall of Famer. I’m already a world champion, but I think a fight like this can make us a superstar,” Fundora told Fight Hub TV.
That line of thinking makes sense on the surface. Thurman spent a long time as one of the most prominent names in the sport, and he unified the welterweight titles when he was in his prime. His 2017 win over Danny Garcia was the pinnacle of that era, coming right after a win over Shawn Porter while sitting atop the mountain.
The problem is that the Thurman who steps into the ring today is almost a decade removed from that version.
Long layoffs and only the occasional fight pushed Thurman out of the daily conversation. A whole new generation of fans have never even seen him in his prime, and for the veterans those days feel like a lifetime ago. Name value eventually starts to dry up when a fighter stays on the sidelines for too long.
That’s why thinking that a win over Thurman makes you a superstar just doesn’t add up.
Fundora already has wins that actually mean more in the ring. He beat Tim Tszyu when Tszyu was an active champion coming in at 154 pounds with a ton of momentum. His earlier stoppage of Erickson Lubin remains one of the division’s most punishing fights in recent years and proved that Fundora can survive a brutal match against a dangerous competitor.
Those wins were against guys who are right in the middle of the junior middleweight mix today. Beating Thurman puts a familiar name on Fundora’s resume, but it just doesn’t have the same competitive punch as those other wins.
Superstar status in boxing usually comes from defeating the strongest active fighters of a generation, not from beating a respected name whose biggest nights happened years earlier.
The road to the top for Fundora still runs through the guys active in the division today. Facing fighters like Vergil Ortiz Jr., Jaron Ennis, Xander Zayas, Israil Madrimov and Josh Kelly is what really builds a reputation in this era.
There is still a lot of curiosity surrounding Fundora that Thurman is facing. It’s always interesting to see a champion take on a former star who used to rule a different weight class. But if the goal is to become a true superstar, the real work still involves the fighters at the top of the 154-lb division.
