Fundora: If We Have To Keep Fighting Until All Mandatories Are Out Of The Way, We’ll Do It

LOS ANGELES – Sebastian Fundora feels he more than earned his title shot by beating Erickson Lubin in their unforgettable brawl April 9 in Las Vegas.

Here he is, however, about to make a defense of the WBC interim super welterweight title he won when he stopped Lubin after nine rough rounds at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. And if Fundora defeats Mexican contender Carlos Ocampo in their 12-round, 154-pound championship match Saturday night at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, the unbeaten southpaw will take on another contender if he can’t get the winner of the Jermell Charlo-Tim Tszyu bout next.

“My dad raised me to be patient,” Fundora told BoxingScene.com in reference to Freddy Fundora, who also trains his son. “Not that I’m fine with it, but it’s OK. This is a business. I’m only 24 years old. I definitely have time. We’ll take Ocampo first, and if we have to have another fight after that, we have to continue fighting until all the mandatories are out of the way, we’ll do it. But hopefully we have next after this Tim Tszyu fight. But we’ll see what Al Haymon and our team has for us.”

Houston’s Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) is expected to square off against Australia’s Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs) at some point early in 2023. Tszyu is the WBO’s mandatory challenger for one of Charlo’s four titles and will be Charlo’s first foe since he became boxing’s first fully unified 154-pound champion May 14, when he knocked out Argentina’s Brian Castano (17-1-2, 12 KOs) in the 10th round at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Russia’s Bakhram Murtazaliev, who has long been the IBF’s mandatory challenger for another of Charlo’s championships, expects to finally get his title shot in the Charlo-Tszyu winner’s following fight. Murtazaliev (20-0, 15 KOs) has agreed to step aside three times and allowed Charlo to fight Jeison Rosario and Castano twice in exchange for lucrative tune-up fights on those undercards.

If Murtazaliev indeed faces the Charlo-Tszyu winner later in 2023, Fundora, if he wants to remain active, could fight at least twice more before he gets his shot at the WBC’s legitimate title.

Fundora (19-0-1, 13 KOs) is listed by most oddsmakers as at least an 8-1 favorite to overcome Ocampo in their “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event (10 p.m. ET; 7 p.m. PT), which they promoted Thursday during a press conference at The Westin Los Angeles Airport. The 26-year-old Ocampo (34-1, 22 KOs) has won 12 straight fights since Errol Spence Jr. (28-0, 22 KOs) stopped him with a body shot late in the first round of their June 2018 fight for Spence’s IBF welterweight title at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

“I think he’s just grown from that fight,” Fundora said. “Maybe his confidence is back up, I guess. I don’t know. He’s on another win streak. They talked about it so much with the last fight with Lubin, that he was on a win streak. … We’ll see what [Ocampo] brings. I expect him 100-percent better, but we’re there to do our job and focus on what I’m gonna do.”

Showtime will air two title bouts before Fundora faces Ocampo.

In its 12-round co-feature, Dominican contender Carlos Adames (21-1, 16 KOs), the WBC’s number one-ranked contender in the 160-pound division, and sixth-ranked Juan Macias Montiel (23-5-2, 23 KOs), of Los Mochis, Mexico, will fight for the WBC interim middleweight title. In Showtime’s opener of this three-fight telecast, Argentina’s Fernando Martinez (14-0, 8 KOs) will make the first defense of his IBF junior bantamweight championship against former champ Jerwin Ancajas (33-2-2, 22 KOs), the Filipino southpaw who lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Martinez on February 26 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.