One of the most unique boxing champions in recent memory, WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian “The Towering Inferno” Fundora (pictured) has vexed nearly all of his opponents with outlandish height and reach, combined with his come forward-style. He will look to continue his recent run of dominance this Saturday when he takes on his most experienced opponent to date in former unified welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman headlining a PBC pay-per-view event on Prime Video at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Ahead of this pivotal March 28th showdown, Fundora’s opponents shared their firsthand experience stepping into the ring with the preposterously six-foot-five 154-pound world champion, including his most recent foe, former champion Tim Tszyu, who faced Fundora in a pair of memorable clashes.
“Fundora’s biggest advantage is the number of punches he throws in a round,” said Tszyu. “It’s the fact that he doesn’t let anyone rest. Because he’s so tall, he’s able to just punch and punch without using too much energy. That’s his biggest strength. He’s a bit of a nightmare, but he’s also easy to hit. But he’s also tough as hell, he gets hit and keeps coming. It’s hard to be strategic. When you fight Fundora, expect that you’re gonna be in one of the hardest fights.”
In between fights against Tszyu, Fundora defended his championships against Chordale Booker, who had a moment early in the first round of their fight that made him realize he was in for an even more challenging task than he expected. “It’s already hard to fight somebody as tall as Sebastian, but it’s that length that he has,” said Booker. “He came out and threw the jab and I remember the first thing I did was pull, and he still hit me. I trained for a guy who was tall and gave up his height, but when he came to fight me he had just had the first fight with Tszyu, and he clearly had worked on his range. That made it a difficult fight for me.”
Tszyu also emphasized the same point about Fundora’s length and the difficulties that creates, especially related to how much energy Fundora’s opponents have to exert compared to him. “I was just throwing haymakers without even looking and every time that happened I was swinging at air,” said Tszyu. “Because of his reach and his awkwardness and that he can take a step back and be completely out of the way, he’s got big strengths. The most challenging part was that there was no wasted energy from him. The amount of work that I had to do in a round, compared to him, my energy was much more wasted.”
Two opponents who gave Fundora some trouble in their fights also analyzed the challenges they faced in their respective matchups. Jamontay Clark fought Fundora to a draw in 2019, while top contender Erickson Lubin was able to drop Fundora before ultimately losing one of 2022’s best fights. “It was an intense fight,” said Clark. “Every time a new round would start, he would smile over at me and I was like ‘okay here we go again.’ I knew I had to be on top of my game. When we fought, Fundora was really all pressure. But watching his last couple fights, it looks like he’s started to sit back on his back foot more and try to pop the jab. I feel like he doesn’t bring his jab hand back all the way fast enough, but he’s so tall that he can usually get away with it.”
“Fighting Sebastian Fundora is a challenge for sure,” said Lubin. “He’s just something you don’t see at this weight class. He’s a great fighter who brings the fight. He makes every fighter have to engage with him. He takes up a lot of space in the ring and it was a different kind of challenge for me.”
The fighter with the best blueprint on facing Fundora is certainly Brian Mendoza, who stopped Fundora with a sensational knockout in one of 2023’s biggest upsets, before Fundora earned his first world championship. For Mendoza, one of the keys to beating Fundora is based in a skillset that he believes Fundora will be forced to overcome against the talented former champion Thurman. “Fighting Fundora is definitely something that you can’t truly prepare for,” said Mendoza. “You need tons of lateral movement, which I think Thurman has, and you need to be able to cross up his angles. I don’t think people really noticed my lateral movement in our fight. They saw him getting downhill and landing on me, but they didn’t notice how many shots I got out of the way of. I think Thurman is a big threat because he knows how to get you to cross your feet up and get you to come in with that leaping hook. You saw in my fight with Fundora that it can be his kryptonite.”
Moments after coming up short in their second fight, Tszyu said in his post-fight interview that he “felt like I was shadowboxing with myself sometimes,” in trying to turn the tide against Fundora. When asked how he feels about going up against an opponent who elicits that kind of reaction after a fight, Thurman detailed why he’ll be able to end March 28th with a different outcome. “It’s all about the reach factor that Tszyu was referencing,” said Thurman. “He felt like he was shadowboxing himself because he kept falling short and missing by inches. He was able to land some punches as well, but he’s more flat-footed and not as mobile as I am.
“I understand where he’s coming from. Fundora is like a walking obstacle course for anyone in the division. He’s a freak of nature and it’s gonna be challenging. He’s let people on the inside in the past and I’m not sure he can just pepper me with that jab all night like against Tszyu, because I’m not gonna be standing straight up. I have good head movement and bobbing and weaving tactics. We believe that we’ll be able to get inside, be explosive and make up for that gap and eventually get our hands on Fundora.”
