Unified junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora will likely move on to an Amazon Prime Video non-pay-per-view event on March 29, following Thursday’s news that former three-belt champion Errol Spence Jnr has withdrawn from their planned pay-per-view match scheduled for the same date.
“He pulled out – finally,” Fundora manager Sampson Lewkowicz told BoxingScene on Thursday following the Spence news, first reported by ESPN.com. “I wish him good luck.”
In the aftermath of his bloody split decision victory over outgoing WBO junior middleweight titleholder Tim Tszyu on March 30, Fundora, 21-1-1 (13 KOs), was greeted in the ring by Texas’ Spence, 28-1 (22 KOs), and the pair sought to fight last year before a delay.
Spence, 34, hasn’t fought since his brutal defeat at the hands of former undisputed welterweight and current WBA junior middleweight titlist Terence Crawford in July 2023.
“I definitely worry about [brain trauma], have checkups all the time and always … get scans and all type of stuff just to make sure I’m on point,” Spence said. “Not too many people go high speed in a Ferrari and get thrown, land on solid concrete and still be here to talk today, still survive, still be coherent. That was traumatic and a brutal experience that I went through. It was definitely serious.”
What transpired behind the scenes is not entirely certain, but Spence split with his longtime trainer Derrick James and they ultimately sued each other, and as the days neared toward the official start of training camp by month’s end, Spence on Wednesday posted a few comments on X.
“I’m trying give y’all the best me,” he wrote, followed by: “Boxing so fucked up.”
Last month, the WBO ruled it would not consider Spence its champion if he defeated Fundora because he was coming off a brutal knockout loss, has never fought at 154lbs and isn’t ranked in the WBO’s top 15.
WBO President Gustavo Olivieri told BoxingScene that Fundora can defend the WBO belt by fighting anyone in the sanctioning body’s top 15, but if he chooses a non-ranked foe and loses, the belt will go to interim titleholder Crawford.
While a slew of known fighters in the sport’s best division reside within the top 15, including No. 1-ranked Xander Zayas, second-ranked Charles Conwell, former WBA titlist Israil Madrimov and Fundora’s planned March opponent Serhii Bohachuk, it’s believed Fundora and Lewkowicz will look elsewhere for Fundora’s first defense of both the WBO and WBC belts.
One boxing official connected to Fundora’s new opponent search said there has been interest in unranked Joseph Spencer, 19-1 (11 KOs).
Premier Boxing Champions, which promotes Fundora, also offered fifth-ranked Chordale Booker, 23-1 (11 KOs), although Booker has a planned Feb. 15 bout on his schedule from which he would need to be extricated.
One top-15 fighter who dearly wants the bout is Cleveland’s Conwell, 21-0 (16 KOs), who told BoxingScene on Thursday, “It’s two belts! I’d be unified champion. I can beat this guy [Fundora] doing what I do: stick to the game plan, listen to my corner and do what I do best.”
Non-pay-per-view financial restrictions and the shortened promotional time window leading to March 29 means other top 154lbs such as Bohachuk (who fought Dec. 21), injured IBF titleholder Bakhram Murtazaliev (who observes Ramadan) and Israil Madrimov and Vergil Ortiz Jnr (who fight each other Feb. 22 in Saudi Arabia) will not be chosen for Fundora now.
Former undisputed 154lbs champion Jermell Charlo has posted videos of himself back in the gym, but he’s coming off more than a year layoff from his flat September 2023 showing against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Instead, expect a bout where the 6-foot-5½ Fundora stands as a favorite, and can relish his first defense as a unified titleholder following his own lengthy layoff, and then wade into the pool with the abundance of 154lbs sharks.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
