Sebastian Fundora KO12 Ermal Hadribeaj... Sebastian “The Towering Inferno” Fundora closed the PBC show in style on Saturday night in Las Vegas, retaining his WBC 154-pound championship. Fundora was credited with a final second twelfth-round knockout of previously undefeated Ermal Hadribeaj, although the knockout punch landed just after the bell sounded and Hadribeaj beat the count. Referee Thomas Taylor, already having a bad night with point deductions, ignored the bell and ruled it a knockout. Fundora would've won by decision anyway. "It was an interesting fight,” said Fundora. “I had to go back and fight on the inside and show everyone again that I can still do that. It was dramatic to knock him out at the last second. But we'll go back to the gym and fix some things.”
Fundora’s (25-1-1, 17 KOs) fourth world title defense saw him weather an early storm from a game Hadribeaj (23-1-1, 8 KOs), who was determined to end the night as Albania’s first boxing world champion. After round one saw him effectively circle and jab his towering opponent, the fight quickly turned into a phone booth battle with both men looking to do damage on the inside.
The strategy to stay on the inside of Fundora led to Taylor twice taking away points from Hadribeaj for holding (rounds three and eleven), but allowed the challenger to smother much of Fundora’s early offense. As the fight transitioned to the middle rounds, Fundora’s tremendous work rate eventually began to work through as an onslaught of uppercuts and body shots slowly but surely diminished Hadribeaj’s offense. Overall, Fundora out landed Hadribeaj 202-144 and connected on 56 body shots according to CompuBox.
"I told the ref in the fourth round that I was hurting him,” said Fundora. “I kept landing body shots and was looking for that special shot to get him out of there. I was hitting him in the rib cage the whole time with the left hand and when I went up the middle, I heard the noise that he made. So I just kept touching that and knew it would break him.”
Once again showing a tremendous reserve of energy, Fundora kept that work rate up through round 11, landing 18 more power shots. In the end, Fundora was once again too much for his competition, blasting Hadribeaj with a power left just after the final bell sounded that sent Hadribeaj down hard and led to the referee ruling the fight a knockout. The official stoppage came at 2:59 of round twelve.
After the fight, Fundora was asked about a potential undisputed 154-pound matchup against the winner of a Jaron Ennis vs. Josh Kelly unification. "I want to go for undisputed in this division,” said Fundora. “We'll break either Jaron Ennis or Josh Kelly down. Just like the last guy and the guy before that. We'll keep breaking them down."
