“The Towering Inferno’s Return: Fundora Defends Against Booker While Eyes Turn to Potential Showdowns with Ortiz, Zayas, and Crawford

Sebastian Fundora will finally be making his first defense of his WBC and WBO junior middleweight titles after a 12-month layoff, defending against challenger Chordale Booker this Saturday, March 22nd, on PBC on Prime Video at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Booker’s Challenge

Booker (23-1, 11 KOs) isn’t the ideal opponent for Fundora because he’s not well-known and has never beaten anyone of note during his career. ‘The Towering Inferno,’ Fundora wanted to fight Errol Spence, but the fight fell through. They would have fought on March 29th if the contest had happened.

Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) hasn’t fought since his victory over WBO 154-lb champion Tim Tszyu on March 30th last year, and there’s no way of knowing how the time off will affect his performance. That was a grueling fight that left Fundora with a broken nose that took months to heal.

Saturday’s Fundora-Booker tripleheader will begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, with the action streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

If Fundora is victorious on Saturday, he has many options at 154 for him to fight. WBC interim 154-lb champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. and #1 WBO-ranked contender Xander Zayas have been pushing for a fight.

You can’t rule out Errol Spence popping up again for a possible fight, and there’s always a rematch with Tim Tszyu. Terence Crawford would be the perfect fight for Fundora, but that’s unlikely to happen because he’s expected to face Canelo Alvarez at 168 in September.

Undercard fights for Saturday

• Jesus Ramos Jr. vs. Guido Emmanuel Schramm – Chief support bout scheduled for 10 rounds at junior middleweight.
• Elijah Garcia vs. Terrell Gausha at middleweight in a 10-rounder in the first fight of Saturday’s broadcast on PBC on Prime Video.

“We earned this title to be called that,” said Sebastian Fundora to Fighthype about him being the unified WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion after his victory last year over Tim Tszyu. “He’s #3 or #4 [correction: #5] with the WBO? He’s up there for a reason. I’m pretty sure he’s been fighting his a** off. We’re ready for whatever Booker brings,” said Fundora about the challenger, Chordale Booker.

“I am the top dog. Before we had the title, we were up there in the ranks, and no one wanted to fight us. But now that we have the title, everybody wants to face us, so it’s good,” Fundora said. “Let’s get all these guys in the ring with us, and let’s get these fights going.