There’s no weight class in boxing right now quite like the junior middleweight division.
It has a lineal champion who hasn’t fought in a year-and-a-half and has no concrete plans to fight again. It has an elite pound-for-pounder considered the division’s top dog who has fought exactly once at the weight and is expected to next compete two divisions higher. And it has perhaps the deepest roster of prime, pre-prime, and post-prime fighters of any weight class.
The 154-lbs division will grab hold of the spotlight this Saturday night in a PBC-on-Prime show from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, with two of the three bouts taking place at ’54 (and the third fight just six pounds to the north).
And if junior middleweight is boxing’s most unique division, this card is headlined by its most unique competitor: “The Towering Inferno,” Sebastian Fundora.
Fundora is a 6’5½” California redwood of a man in a division where the average height is just under 5’10.” He’s a bespectacled southpaw who dresses just like I did on Picture Day in 6th grade but who loves infighting in a way 6th-grade me very much did not and in a way no 6’5½” junior middleweight ever should.
On Saturday, Fundora defends his two alphabet belts against +750 betting underdog Chordale Booker — a fight Fundora is very much supposed to win. In the co-feature, fellow young southwestern-U.S.-based junior middleweight contender Jesus Ramos Jr. is an even bigger favorite as he takes on 11-to-1 ‘dog Guido Schramm.
On paper, the fights are more showcase than showdown. But if they showcase Fundora and Ramos effectively, the options are endless for both of them in this division.
Overall, the junior middleweight class splits into three factions: the veteran stars who may or may not still be factors in this title picture, the in-their-prime crew currently making up the bulk of the top 10, and the rising prospects looking for their breakout fights.
In that first category: Jermell Charlo, technically still the lineal champion even though he hasn’t defended that title since May of 2022 and hasn’t fought at all since a failed challenge of super middleweight champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in September 2023; Terence “Bud” Crawford, unofficially the man to beat at 154 if he were still fighting at 154, but instead he’s expected to make his own leap to face Canelo this September; Errol Spence Jr., who was originally penciled in to face Fundora this month but instead stands at 20 months of inactivity since losing to Crawford in July 2023; and Keith Thurman, who just last week ended a three-year layoff with a 154-lb re-debut of sorts, 13 years after last fighting at this weight.
The second category includes the 27-year-old Fundora; 32-year-old Bakhram Murtazaliev, who holds one of the other alphabet belts; undefeated 26-year-old rising star Vergil Ortiz Jr.; Serhii Bohachuk, 29, and Israil Madrimov, 30, both recently beaten narrowly by Ortiz; 30-year-old Tim Tszyu, who seemed headed for superstardom until losing back-to-back to Fundora and Murtazaliev; and Erickson Lubin, 29, the only man to hang a loss on Ramos, poised to return in May after being inactive for the same length of time as Charlo.
Then there’s the next wave, which includes the 24-year-old Ramos, undefeated other than his controversial loss to Lubin; Yoenis Tellez of Cuba, 24 and building a strong resume through just 10 pro fights; Charles Conwell, a 27-year-old U.S. Olympian being moved with extreme deliberation; Callum Walsh of Ireland, a 24-year-old southpaw blowing through modest opposition; and Puerto Rican-born Xander Zayas, just 22 years old and remaining dominant as he begins to step up his comp.
The matchmaking combinations seem infinite — and that’s before you remember that welterweight beltholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis is bound for 154 at some point.
Brian Campbell will be ringside in a color commentary role for Prime Video on Saturday, and I asked him to do a little dream matchmaking for main-eventer Fundora if he gets by Booker.
“Sebastian Fundora is so consistently fun to watch that the main thing we need out of him moving forward is activity, especially considering he’s the de facto face of the division as the unified champion,” Campbell said. “Fundora could make a great fight against pretty much anyone, but there’s something about the style contrast that still makes me want to see him against a comebacking Errol Spence Jr. It’s a fight that is winnable for the former welterweight king should he still retain most of his peak form. But if Spence is merely a shadow of his former self, Fundora is the type of opponent who will find that out quickly due to his pressure style.”
Spence was the opponent who came right to mind for Campbell. But, given the depth and variety within the division, Spence may not be among the first five names to occur to some other insiders or fans. If Tszyu gets back on track, you couldn’t go wrong with Fundora-Tszyu II. Fundora vs. Murtazaliev in a battle of Tszyu’s two conquerors, to unify three belts, would be a must-see. Ramos is specifically targeting Fundora next; if they both win in style Saturday, that could be a marketable clash.
Any of these potential fights would draw us closer to knowing who is the king of this division in a world in which lineal champ Charlo and Canelo-hunting Crawford aren’t coming back. Who will fill that throne is a very much an open question — but Campbell has a strong lean on which way it’s going.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear,” Campbell said, “that the toughest challenge for anyone at 154 pounds is likely going to come from Vergil Ortiz Jr. Despite sitting out two years due to chronic illness and being forced to move up from 147 pounds, Ortiz has quickly become the most battle-tested fighter in the division. He’s a two-fisted puncher who is capable, like he did with Bohachuk last year, of delivering a fight of the year contender at any time due to his chin and inside fighting skills. Yet, it was the patience and craft that he used against Madrimov as a boxer that really showcased Ortiz as a complete threat and future champion in waiting.”
Ortiz actually bridges the gap between the young up-and-comers and the in-their-prime crowd at 154, as he’s aligned with the former group in age but fits into the latter group in accomplishment.
The same could be said for Fundora, actually, as he’s only three months older than Ortiz.
In fact, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if, a fight or two from now, it’s Fundora vs. Ortiz to determine supremacy in the division — in a fight that truly can’t miss from an action perspective.
First, of course, Fundora has to remain a head taller than the pack by getting past Booker on Saturday.
Booker, like Fundora, is a southpaw, and one who says he intends to make things difficult for The Towering Inferno by utilizing movement. Who knows, maybe we’ll wake up Sunday morning to a 154-lbs picture that looks quite different, where we’re asking which star of the division should be next for new beltholder Booker.
But if this card follows the script, it means Fundora and Ramos both move forward, and all current combinations and permutations remain intact. Every top junior middleweight will have several contenders of the present, the recent past, and the near future to choose among for opponents.
You can’t blame Bud Crawford for making the jump to 168 and leaving 154 behind. He has tens of millions of reasons to do it.
But a lack of compelling opposition at 154 is definitely not one of those reasons.
Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.
