Promoter says Sebastian Fundora must wait to commit to title defense

Sebastian Fundora has no choice but to wait for the outcome of Terence Crawford’s Aug. 3 junior middleweight title fight before he formally commits to making his first defense as a unified champion in the division, the fighter’s promoter told BoxingScene on Thursday.

Sampson Lewkowicz, seeking to clarify social media reports that Fundora’s discussed defense against former three-belt welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. is postponed, said two-belt titleholder Fundora instead is merely waiting out an order by the World Boxing Organization that he must fight Crawford next or be stripped of his WBO belt.

“Everyone’s talking about Sunday and forgetting about Saturday,” Lewkowicz said of unbeaten three-division champion Crawford’s pressing bout in Los Angeles against World Boxing Association titlist Israil Madrimov. “So we wait to see what happens Aug. 3, and then I will request the WBO to mandate the [Crawford] fight. If [Crawford] can’t fight us by December, then the fight can’t happen.”

Crawford has spoken of his deep interest in next fighting undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez after Madrimov.

“Fight Canelo or fight Fundora … but you need to make the choice after Aug. 3,” Lewkowicz said.

“So we have to wait until Aug. 3 because Fundora is proud to be the unified champion. And anything can happen on Aug. 3. Ask Mike Tyson. Or Tim Tszyu [whom Fundora upset March 30]. Anything can happen in boxing.”

In an extended interview released Thursday with Hall of Fame former two-division champion Andre Ward on “All the Smoke Boxing,” Crawford spoke of Fundora being met in the Las Vegas ring by Spence following the Tszyu upset.

Crawford said “politics” and the sport’s “business” were quickly in play to direct Fundora toward Spence and not Crawford – even though Crawford dominated Spence by ninth-round TKO one year ago this week.

“Politics play a big factor in boxing,” Crawford told Ward. “Fundora can’t say I’m who he wants when he [originally] chose to fight Errol Spence and relinquish his WBO title.”

Before turning to Madrimov, Crawford said, “Initially, I wanted to fight Fundora. He said he couldn’t fight this year [because of a broken nose suffered in the Tszyu victory]. We had to go to the next-best option, Israil.

“If you want to fight the best, you’ve got to fight Terence Crawford because Terence Crawford beat the guy who you’re saying you want to beat. You can say” Spence makes more sense “financial-wise, he may bring in more money,” fighting at AT&T Stadium outside Dallas, “but [Fundora] doesn’t even know that for a fact. He didn’t have a meeting with us to say, ‘This is what I want.’”

Following the WBO edict that made it clear Fundora would be stripped of his belt if he bypassed Crawford, promoter Lewkowicz said the decision was made to wait for the Crawford outcome.

While doing so, Lewkowicz was asked this week about the feasibility of making the Spence fight in the early fall if Crawford turned to Alvarez.

Lewkowicz said he doubts Spence is available because he has yet to align with a new trainer after parting ways with longtime cornerman Derrick James. Spence and James are suing each other over James’ contention that Spence shorted him on payments owed from the Crawford fight and other bouts.

“I have an offer for October, nothing in stone – a conversation” to fight Spence, Lewkowicz said. “You don’t need to be too smart to see [Spence] is not training. … He has no trainer and he’s going to court because [James] is suing him. You think he’s training? You think he can be ready? And we have this mandatory [ordered]. So we wait.

“If Crawford chooses to fight Canelo, he won’t fight Fundora.

“[Crawford and Alvarez] can have each other. They are two old men waiting to cash in. The loser should retire.”