Sebastian Fundora not bothered by year-long lay-off since beating Tim Tszyu

By the time Sebastian Fundora makes the first defense of his junior middleweight titles, it will be nearly a year since he won them.

Fundora defeated Tim Tszyu via split decision on March 30, 2024, capturing Tszyu’s WBO title and the vacant WBC belt. But after months and months of waiting for his next opponent – the top candidate was Errol Spence Jnr. – Fundora will instead meet Chordale Booker on March 22.

Fundora-Booker will be the main event at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. The card will stream on Amazon’s Prime Video.

That’s quite a change for Fundora from thinking that he was going to take on Spence on pay-per-view, and sitting on the sidelines while awaiting confirmation. 

“You know, we were ready to fight – they kept just switching the dates,” Fundora said. “I don’t know what happened on Spence’s [end]; I can’t speak on Spence’s behalf, but we were ready to fight. The dates kept changing for whatever reason, but I don’t know. We were training since May of last year for whatever was to come. They gave us a name like Spence. It didn’t happen, but here we are now.”

The layoff has not only meant Fundora has lost some of the momentum gained from the Tszyu win, but there is also the danger of getting rusty from not being in the ring.

Fundora, however, seems unbothered.

“That’s just boxing,” he said. “Things change all the time. Opponents fall through. Events fall through. That’s just the business of boxing.”

Fundora said he’s remained in the gym throughout.

“All boxers train all year-round,” he said. “This is not a seasonal sport, so it’s just, continue to do what we do, and when the fight comes, we take it.”

In the interim, Fundora was able to watch as his younger sister, Gabriela Fundora, went on to become the undisputed flyweight champion.

“That was a blessing,” Sebastian Fundora said. “We both work at the same time. We both see each other train and put in the hard work, and just seeing her do that is a dream come true.”