Sebastian Fundora is now cleared to move forward with a planned voluntary defense.
Whom he plans to face, however, could determine whether he gets to keep his WBO junior middleweight title.
The Ring has confirmed that Fundora (21-1-1, 13 knockouts) was conditionally approved by the WBO for an optional defense. The ruling came in lieu of a previously ordered title consolidation bout versus Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs). As previously reported by The Ring, both parties agreed to go their separate ways for at least one fight. The concession by Crawford freed up Fundora to face an opponent of his team’s choosing.
One key stipulation to sanction the fight was that the challenger must be currently ranked in the top 15.
Update on #FundoraCrawford “talks”:
Told that the WBO has accepted the agreement for Fundora to pursue a voluntary defense. However, must come vs. Top 15 ranked opponent and that a fight vs. Spence will NOT be sanctioned as WBO title defense.— Jake Donovan (@JakeNDaBox) October 10, 2024
That would presumably kill plans for a targeted showdown versus Errol Spence Jr. (28-1, 22 KOs). Such a fight was rumored ever since Fundora’s March 30 split decision win over Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) to win the WBO and vacant WBC 154-pound titles. Spence joined Fundora in the ring to personally issue his challenge, which was verbally embraced by Fundora.
However, Spence has not fought since a lopsided ninth-round stoppage defeat to Crawford last July 29 in Las Vegas. The feat saw Crawford win The Ring championship and fully unify all the alphabet titles at welterweight.
The long layoff coupled with his last win last coming in April 2022 have left Spence out of the WBO rankings. He is currently ranked No. 1 by the WBC at junior middleweight, which would permit at least that title to be at stake.
Fundora is now at risk of being stripped of his WBO should he agree to next face Spence. The demand to face a Top 15 contender was told directly to Fundora’s team by the WBO earlier this year.
The originally ordered Fundora-Crawford bout was an extension of a ruling applied per the conditional terms by the sanctioning body in March. It came in its approval for Fundora to challenge Tszyu on short notice. Fundora won their blood-soaked March 30 Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Prime pay-per-view headliner via split decision. He also picked up the vacant WBC 154-pound title with the win.
Crawford owns the WBA title and the interim WBO belt at 154.
Rather than a three-belt unification bout, Fundora and Crawford will instead head in separate directions.
Crawford has fought just once since his win over Spence. It came in his 154-pound debut, where he edged Israil Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) on Aug. 3 to win the WBA title and the vacant interim WBO belt.
No other fight has since graced the thoughts of The Ring’s No. 3 pound-for-pound entrant outside of a superfight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs).
The interest remains one way, for now. Alvarez—the reigning RING, WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight champion—was previously dismissive of the matchup when asked about it. He remains noncommittal on that matchup or any other for the time being.
Fundora-Spence is tentatively targeted for the first quarter of 2025, should the bout move forward.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
