When you see Sebastian Fundora walk into the ring, you’re not sure to expect a knockout or a dunk.
The tallest super-welterweight in anybody’s memory is ranked No. 7 in his division by the WBC. He’s not coming up the ladder. He is the ladder, as his second-round knockout showed Saturday night, the preliminary to Errol Spence’s welterweight defense against Danny Garcia.
Before that, the 36-year-old Josesito Lopez, the Riverside Rocky, extended his comeback. He dealt a 12-round TKO to Francisco Santana, from Santa Barbara, a beating that was extended unnecessarily by referee Neil Young, who didn’t have a heart of gold. Lopez is 38-8 and has won five of his past six.
Fundora is the fight game’s true outlier, the one guy you would not pick out of a lineup to identify a boxer.
This is also the key to his eventual celebrity. There are no degrees of uniqueness, and Fundora is all alone in his world, a 6-foot-6, 154-pound left-hander.
The only man to avoid losing to Fundora was Jamontay Clark, who is 6-foot-2 himself. He also is the only opponent to match Fundora’s 80-inch reach. The two fought to a split draw in Minneapolis, on Aug. 31 of last year. One judge favored Fundora by six points.
Otherwise, the “Towering Inferno” has 15 wins, 10 by knockout, and he doesn’t turn 23 until Dec. 28. He was scheduled to fight Jorge Cota, who has been in the ring with champs Jermall Charlo and Jeison Rosario, but Cota came down with COVID-19.
The promoters fund Habib Ahmed, who brought a 27-1-1 record from Ghana but never has fought below the 160-pound middleweight limit. Ahmed lost to 168-pound king Gilberto Ramirez two years ago. He had no chance.
Fundora’s age and his ease in making the weight means he doesn’t have to rush. He said he walks around at 154 and would not have a problem becoming the world’s tallest welterweight (147 pounds).
“I’m on the see-food diet,” Fundora said. “Everything I see, I eat.”
Boxing isn’t a beanpole’s game. Paul Williams was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in 2012. He had a 79-inch reach. He split two fights with Sergio Martinez and he beat Antonio Margarito and was 41-2 when it all ended.
Williams was mostly a welterweight, and when Manny Pacquiao was asked if he wanted to fight Williams, he just kept staring up and up until he saw the ceiling. In other words, no.
Yet Williams was only 6-foot-1. He, too, would get blinded by the lights against Fundora.
“I was six feet tall when I was 14 years old,” Fundora said. “I was looking down on everybody. Then I went to 6-3, 6-4, 6-5…I said, that’s it, I don’t want to grow any more.
“I never felt it was a disadvantage. There are not a lot of people like me, and then you add the fact that I’m a southpaw, That’s an awkward style for anybody.”
With all that, Fundora throws another curveball. Instead of positioning himself outside the fray, he can get low to play offense. That’s why he has 10 knockouts among his 15 victories.
“I’ve always had a good inside game,” Fundora said. “That’s what I prepared myself to do because I knew I’d have to get there eventually.”
Basketball always comes up, of course, but Fundora said he tried it one time and “couldn’t even dribble, didn’t even get my permission slip.”
It was always boxing. The family lived in West Palm Beach, Fla., and dad Freddy, an ex-boxer and Cuban immigrant, had them all grow up in the gym.
The family would drive to tournaments from coast to coast, two parents, five kids with another on the way, and a pit bull. They often fought in Coachella and liked it, and moved there when Sebastian was eight. Three of his five siblings also box..
“It’s quiet, it’s pretty, you can be by yourself,” Sebastian said. “And it’s closer to the amateur events.”
He also said Freddy negotiated some of their van trips in two-and-a-half days, which means Freddy could be a world champ in the heavy-foot division. Two-and-a-half days from Florida? “I used to see his foot swell up from driving so much,” Sebastian said.
Sampson Lefkowicz, whose client list includes Martinez and Lucas Matthysse, told Freddy he didn’t want to manage Sebastian. Too skinny, too much risk. Freddy asked him to watch Fundora’s next three fights. That’s all it took.
As usual, Fundora handled this fight with impeccable calm. Asked what it takes to get into fighting mode, he said, “All I need to do is take off my glasses.”
So maybe you CAN hit what you can’t see.
Posted by: https://anaheimsigns.com
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