The WBO’s order for its junior middleweight titleholder Sebastian Fundora to fight interim 154-pound and four-division champion Terence Crawford might appear to be a straightforward request, but it’s anything but.
In a conversation with BoxingScene minutes after the order came down, Fundora promoter Sampson Lewkowicz said he is convinced the 30-day deadline to strike a deal is actually less than a 15-day deadline because Lewkowicz is convinced Crawford still has thoughts of fighting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Fellow four-division champion Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) has a Sept. 14 three-belt super-middleweight title defense against unbeaten Edgar Berlanga to get through, and Lewkowicz speculates Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) will only turn to Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) if he feels his chance to land that lucrative showdown is dead.
“I’m waiting on an offer now, and I’m certain one will not come until after the 14th,” Lewkowicz said. “I’d like to find out right now if [Crawford’s] going to fight for the money or the titles. I believe he wants the money.
“[Crawford] will do everything he can to fight Canelo, and [his team] will not call me until after the fight.”
Asked Wednesday about the Crawford-Fundora fight being ordered, Alvarez told BoxingScene he has not participated in any conversations about a Crawford fight since expressing his disinterest in doing so at his Los Angeles news conference earlier this month.
He stopped short of saying the WBO order means an Alvarez-Crawford fight is dead.
“I don’t think so,” Alvarez said. “I’m not saying that fight can’t happen. That order doesn’t matter.”
Waiting for Alvarez-Berlanga to be complete would give the Crawford-Fundora sides less than two weeks to strike a deal before the purse-bid process is triggered. Or Crawford could just walk away from it all to either maintain his hope for Alvarez, to fight someone else or perhaps retire.
There is deep skepticism in the industry over whether the Fundora-Crawford ever happens.
Lewkowicz, however, warms the conversation by saying this following Crawford’s narrow Aug. 3 victory by unanimous decision over former World Boxing Association 154-pound titleholder Israil Madrimov. Winning the final two rounds on all three scorecards decided the outcome in Crawford’s favor after he failed to back or hurt the younger Uzbekistan fighter.
“[Crawford] is 37 years old, and Sebastian Fundora will kick his fucking ass,” Lewkowicz said. “If [Crawford] fights the way he fought [Aug. 3], he has no shot – he will get knocked out by Fundora.”
Lewkowicz said he retains hope the bout will happen, adding, “if the price is right … .”
While Crawford’s career path is now apparently being handled by his attorney, Harrison Whitman – at the same time he is being backed financially by Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh – Fundora fights for Lewkowicz and under Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions banner.
Lewkowicz is fond of keeping the proposed fight in the U.S., and PBC offers dates throughout November and December – in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, respectively – while Alalshikh has a Dec. 21 card scheduled in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, headlined by the unified heavyweight champion between champion Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.
“Those are two different numbers,” Lewkowicz said of Fundora’s escalated price for venturing to the oil-rich nation. “We are willing to face him.”
Asked how Fundora responded to the WBO order, Lewkowicz said, “He doesn’t give a shit. He’ll fight anybody.”
Lewkowicz spent several minutes after the order talking to WBO President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel, first disputing that Crawford qualifies as a WBO “super champion” who is entitled to a far greater purse split as the WBO interim junior middleweight champion than Fundora deserves as a unified (WBO-WBC) full champion.
Valcarcel clarified that Crawford retains his “super” distinction because he carried it up to the 154-pound division after standing as an undisputed 140-pound and welterweight champion.
Lewkowicz said he proceeded to point out to Valcarcel that Fundora always pays sanctioning bodies the full 3 percent of his entire purse money, and not the shortened 3 percent of a smaller guaranteed (non-pay-per-view) purse that he suspects Crawford has paid.
“We always pay the full,” Lewkowicz said. “It’s honorable.”
That point is being raised as Lewkowicz seeks a greater percentage of the specified purse split the WBO can designate for the bout.
“It can’t be 80-20 [in Crawford’s favor],” Lewkowicz said. “How can [Crawford] ask for [purse split] favors when he’s [shorted] the sanctioning bodies?”
For now, Lewkowicz said he’s unclear whom he’ll negotiate with.
“[Whitman] called me once. Now, we’re ready to face [Crawford], so I hope he calls me again,” Lewkowicz said. “But I’m not expecting a call until after Sept. 14.
“I’m a nice guy, but I’m not naive. I have 30 years in this business. So we’ll see. … [Crawford] doesn’t care about the titles. He only wants the money.”
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.
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