The eyeballs would wander all the best way up, and all the best way down Sebastian Fundora’s tall body early on. The eye assessments have been incessantly adopted by feedback from boxing individuals who thought he was “too fragile,” “too weak,” “too nice.” He as soon as slept over an Argentinian butcher’s warehouse when he was 18, not realizing a touch of Spanish, taking the bus round for a month so he may get in some work and fights. He was known as “giraffe.” He was known as “freak.” And he stored going. And stored going. And stored going.
Over a decade now, the names and labels have steadily pale.
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In time, the fan-friendly 6-foot-6 “Towering Inferno” has turn out to be a star. The reigning WBC tremendous welterweight champion is too humble to confess it. His father, Freddy, is too humble to acknowledge it.
But the boxing world is now discovering out what the Fundoras already knew: Sebastian Fundora is particular — and certainly one of boxing’s most entertaining fighters.
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After the 28-year-old southpaw’s star-turning 2025 marketing campaign, he faces the subsequent problem in former unified welterweight world champion Keith Thurman on Saturday evening, March 28, from contained in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Fundora’s WBC 154-pound title will likely be on the road in opposition to the 37-year-old Thurman, who is using a two-fight win streak and is making his second look at 154. It will even mark solely the third time Thurman (31-1, 23 KOs) has fought since his loss to Manny Pacquiao for the WBA welterweight title in 2019.
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Inactivity and accidents have ravaged Thurman’s profession, whereas Fundora retains arcing silently upward.
This would be the third title protection for Fundora (23-1-1, 15 KOs), who has a powerful argument as the very best 154-pounder on this planet, particularly after his devastating seventh-round stoppage of Tim Tszyu in their July 2025 rematch. It’s the very best Fundora has regarded as a professional, mixing his lengthy attain with exact energy punches that ultimately satisfied Tszyu to remain on his stool after the seventh spherical.
“Sebastian has gone through a lot of hell to get here,” stated Freddy, his father and coach. “We have taken a lot [of criticism] in the past and there have been times when it was annoying.”
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Freddy had a proper to be irritated — that is his son.
“We are a simple American family, Sebastian has his truck and his boots, and in the terrain where we live, it is a way of life to wear boots and driving a truck,” Freddy stated. “Sebastian lives a true fighter’s lifestyle. He’s not running around at two or three in the morning, and he’s always committed to boxing. We’ve lived by the cake law. You don’t want to take the cake out of the oven too soon, or it will be raw and undercooked. Or if you take too long, the cake will burn.
“The timing is right. Sebastian is maturing now. People forget that he started right out of high school.”
Freddy admits he has all the time given freedom to his son within the ring — although he acknowledges there have been instances when he would get pissed off when Sebastian may have used his jab, reasonably than permit an opponent to get inside and have interaction in a fire-fight. It was once an ongoing battle Sebastian usually waged with himself. He preferred placing his foot down and firing, generally at elevated danger.
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Who may neglect Fundora’s nine-round struggle with Erickson Lubin in 2022, a Fight of the Year candidate, which noticed Fundora knocked down for the primary time in his profession, then rise to cease Lubin within the ninth? His psychological fortitude was confronted proper in his grill, and he replied. When Thurman needed to again out of the unique Tszyu combat in March 2024 with a biceps harm that required surgical procedure, it was Fundora who stepped in and received a split-decision blood bathtub and the WBC tremendous welterweight title with it.
Sebastian Fundora’s breakout second got here in March 2024 in opposition to then-champ Tim Tszyu.
(Anadolu through Getty Images)
“I believe Sebastian can beat any 154-pounder in the world,” Freddy stated. “All of these guys at 154 have to lose weight to make 154. We don’t need to do that. Sebastian looks good, though every day I am learning, Sebastian is learning, and his best is still yet to come.”
That is a daunting prospect for anybody getting within the ring with him.
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“His focus is far better than it was, and he is maturing, and listening,” Freddy stated. “His problem growing up was he wanted do things his way sometimes, but that is life that goes beyond boxing, typical father-son things. It is the course of life.”
Sebastian himself says he is a extra mature, affected person fighter. The items are coming collectively. He all the time supposed to make use of his distance, displaying probably the greatest jabs within the sport. He tended to get into pointless fire-fights when he was youthful.
“I always felt I did know when to put my foot on the gas, and I think through time what has evolved is that I’m putting on the heat in a simpler, smarter way,” Sebastian stated. “My last fight, I knocked [Tszyu] down in the first round. My dad told me I could have knocked him out in the first round. I saw it, too, I saw it live while I was doing it. But I also knew what worked and what didn’t work. I’m still figuring out things that work for me and become comfortable with different things, different tools for different fights.
“The communication between my dad and me is great. He trusts me that I will stop someone. I trust him to allow me to put pressure on without my dad having to tell me. I sense it. It comes from experience.”
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Perhaps Fundora’s finest lesson got here in his lone loss, a seventh-round stoppage to Brian Mendoza in April 2023 for the interim WBC tremendous welterweight title. It was sudden.
Though, it helped.
Sebastian took a 12 months off and was given the chance to combat Tszyu 11 months later.
A brand new, affected person, improved “Towering Inferno” appeared.
“I went back to camp and worked on technical stuff, and after that, I was practically given another year off, and I used that time to grow more. Everything needed to be worked on,” Sebastian stated. “My footwork, my hands, and me and my dad decided to go back and watch videos of me in the amateurs. My dad told me we have these punches that we could use from the videos. He is always grilling those punches in my brain. I’m listening better now,” the champ added, laughing.
The 6-foot-6 Sebastian Fundora (left) towers over Keith Thurman ahead of Saturday’s title fight.
(Kevork Djansezian via Getty Images)
“I feel I’m the best 154-pounder in the world, and these guys can’t keep up with what I have. With Thurman, I have to keep doing what I am doing, and I believe I can beat Terence Crawford. Let’s see what [Jaron] ‘Boots’ [Ennis] does next. I would love to fight him.
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“I’m a champion for a reason and I plan on being a 154-pound champion for a while.”
Fundora fought twice in 2025 and hoped for a 3rd combat, which featured Thurman, on the initially scheduled date of Oct. 25 in Las Vegas. But a hand harm compelled Fundora out of coaching and a postponement.
Five months later, each fighters enter the ring with various incentive.
Fundora’s previous three fights embrace a pair of victories over Tszyu, and a stoppage win over Chordale Booker, whereas Thurman is combating for his relevance as a world-championship contender. He is 2-1 over his previous three fights, stopping Brock Jarvis in March 2025 — his first combat in three years — after he beat Mario Barrios in February 2022. The lone lack of Thurman’s profession got here in opposition to Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao, a cut up resolution setback in July 2019. Thurman’s sporadic, uneven profession has been pocked by inconsistency attributable to harm and inactivity.
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It is one thing Fundora hoped to keep away from earlier than the hand harm pushed this combat again.
“I definitely wanted do it, I would have fought four times in 2025, if everything went right,” he stated. “I would have fought on Christmas if I had to. I’d fight on my birthday (Dec. 28) if I had to, it’s what fighters do and how they think. I have an advantage over everyone I face: I love what I do. A lot of these guys don’t.”
The accolades have arrived. It’s been an extended combat for respect, and recently Fundora has even been fascinated with getting safety, as a result of he will get mobbed when he goes out in public, particularly at main fights. He and his household — together with youthful sister Gabriela Fundora, the game’s undisputed flyweight champion — are extremely approachable.
This is the place Sebastian Fundora needs to be — a humble star whose time has come.
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“Every moment you have to know where you are, and every step I took I recognized where I was,” he stated. “When I lost to Mendoza, I remember my dad telling me, ‘God told you that you weren’t ready.’ I’m ready now. I had no doubts I [would’ve] beaten Terence Crawford before he retired. I would have fought him on the North Pole, I would have fought him in the Sahara Desert. I believe in myself. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks or says. When you genuinely believe in yourself, you become very dangerous.”
Like Sebastian Fundora at 154 kilos.
