WBO will order Fundora vs. Crawford, Spence Jr. is ready too
The boxing organization said the new champion should face Crawford, but Spence Jr. could end up fighting the Florida native.
Boxing is an unpredictable sport and Sebastian Fundora is the most recent example. The American became the unified WBC and WBO light middleweight champion by defeating Tim Tszyu against all odds on Saturday night.
Fundora, who stepped into the ring again after suffering the only defeat in his career to Brian Mendoza on April 2023, proved he was more than ready to take on the biggest challenge as a professional boxer, despite accepting the fight on short notice.
Tszyu was expected to fight the former world champion Keith Thurman, but the 35-year-old got injured only a few days before the event, paving the way for Fundora.
Tszyu seemed to have little problem controlling the distance with Fundora in the first round, connecting the hardest shots, while the American giant tried to keep the Australian champion at bay with his long jabs. However, everything changed when Tszyu got a nasty cut on the top of his head towards the final moments of the second round.
From then on, the defending champion was blinded by the flow of his blood and couldn’t perform as he expected, although he kept going forward, trying to knock Fundora out. But The Towering Inferno could take the power punches thrown by Tszyu and landed his jab consistently throughout the 12 rounds to earn a split decision win that saw him become a world champion.
Fundora vs Crawford... or Spence Jr. next
WBO president Paco Valcarcel posted on social media that his organization will order the fight between Fundora and his mandatory, Terence Crawford, next week.
Despite all the problems that Fundora’s height and reach caused Tszyu, the outcome could have been very different if the Aussie hadn’t suffered that cut, and the undefeated Crawford is aware of that. In a fight between both fighters, the Omaha-bred talent would be a big favorite to come out on top.
However, Fundora may be more attracted by the idea of taking on Errol Spence Jr. Fighting him would translate into a big-money fight on PPV, so he will likely vacate his belt to go down in weight and take on The Truth.
Fundora’s promoter already showed interest in seeing his fighter sharing the ring with Spence Jr., adding they want to maximize the money they can make.
If that happens, Crawford could try to capture the WBO junior middleweight title from Josh Kelly, although it wouldn’t report him great attention. The other option for Bud would be facing Jaron Ennis in a more spectacular event or moving up to 168 and trying to get a megafight against Canelo Alvarez.