Sebastian Fundora will next defend his WBC and WBO junior middleweight titles against Errol Spence in early 2025 in Texas.
Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) has reportedly reached an agreement with WBO mandatory and interim champion Terence Crawford to allow him to next defend against Spence (28-1, 22 KOs).
If Fundora defeats Spence, he will face WBO mandatory Crawford later in 2025. A win for Spence would set up a possible rematch with Crawford. It can also be a big fight.
How big that is is unknown, as many boxing fans will not be interested in seeing a second fight between Spence and Crawford due to how one-sided their match was last year, in July 2023. Crawford knocked out Spence in the ninth round in a total of one fight.
Mike Coppinger has the news that Fundora would fight Spence next, with Crawford stepping aside to make that big match happen.
Fans are excited about Spence taking on Fundora, but it could end badly for the 34-year-old. The 26-year-old Fundora is young, active, in his prime and tall at 6’6″. This fight could end badly for Spence, who doesn’t believe in taking tune-ups.
Spence did nothing to earn a title shot against WBC and WBO 154-lb champion Fundora. Errol has been out for 15 months since losing to Crawford on July 29, 2023, and it is not exactly fair that he is allowed to jump ahead of the other contenders in the WBC/WBO rankings to challenge Fundora for his belts.
Spence looked pretty lackluster in his fight against Crawford, his match against Yordenis Ugas in April 2022, and his showdown against Danny Garcia in December 2020, 15 months before that.
The injuries and soft life Spence has had since 2020 have contributed to a decline in his game. His last three performances look nothing like the way he fought back in 2018 and earlier.
It is unclear who Crawford will fight while he waits for the smoke to clear from the Fundora vs Spence fight. Given the 37-year-old Crawford’s age and recent poor performance against Israil Madrimov on August 3, he needs to return to the ring soon against one of the contenders so he doesn’t allow more ring rust to accumulate. Crawford did not look good after a 13-month layoff to challenge Madrimov for his WBA junior middleweight title.
