Sebastian Fundora Stops Hadribeaj in Final Seconds to Defend WBC Title
Fundora dropped Hadribeaj in the closing seconds of round 12 and now wants all four belts at 154 pounds.
Sebastian Fundora found the finish at the last possible moment.
The WBC junior middleweight champion dropped Ermal Hadribeaj in the closing seconds of the twelfth and final round Saturday night at The Chelsea inside the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, defending his title in dramatic and controversial fashion. Fundora improves to 25-1-1 with 17 knockouts.
The fight was competitive throughout. Fundora landed 202 total punches to Hadribeaj's 144, per CompuBox, and won eight of the twelve rounds on the unofficial cards. Hadribeaj actually posted a higher connect rate at 32.3 percent compared to Fundora's 25.9 percent, but the towering champion's volume and length proved decisive.
Then came the finish. With time nearly expired in the final round, Fundora landed the shot that put Hadribeaj down for good, ending any doubt about the scorecards.
Fundora wasted no time calling his shot after the win. He wants to become the undisputed 154-pound champion, and he has a clear path to get there. The WBA, WBO and IBF titles will be on the line when Jaron "Boots" Ennis faces Josh Kelly. Fundora holds the WBC belt, and a unification bout with the winner of that fight would put all four straps in play.
"I want undisputed in this division," Fundora said after the fight, per Boxing News 24.
His promoter Sampson Lewkowicz made the terms clear. "We need 50-50 because we want to unify," Lewkowicz said, adding that he has already begun discussions with Ennis' advisory team. Lewkowicz said he hopes neither camp asks for a larger share of the purse.
Fundora has his sights set on Ennis in particular, saying he favors Boots to win the Ennis-Kelly fight.
That finish was wild. Fundora was winning the fight on the cards, so the knockout in the last seconds was a bonus, not a bailout. But it adds to the highlight reel and that matters when you are trying to sell an undisputed fight.
The real story here is the path to four belts. Ennis vs. Kelly will produce a three-belt champion, and Fundora is the only man standing between that winner and undisputed. If Lewkowicz can get the 50-50 split locked in, this fight practically makes itself. No one at 154 is going to want to miss out on the biggest purse at the weight.
I think Fundora vs. Ennis is the fight to make. Kelly is talented, but Boots has the speed and power to handle him, and then you would get the two best 154-pounders in the world going at it. Fundora's length against Ennis' explosiveness would be must-watch boxing. Let us just hope the business side does not mess it up.
