The eyeballs would wander all the way up, and all the way down Sebastian Fundora’s tall frame early on. The eye tests were frequently followed by comments from boxing people who thought he was “too fragile,” “too weak,” “too nice.” He once slept over an Argentinian butcher’s warehouse when he was 18, not knowing a hint of Spanish, taking the bus around for a month so he could get in some work and fights. He was called “giraffe.” He was called “freak.” And he kept going. And kept going. And kept going.
Over a decade now, the names and labels have gradually faded.
Advertisement
In time, the fan-friendly 6-foot-6 “Towering Inferno” has become a star. The reigning WBC super welterweight champion is too humble to admit it. His father, Freddy, is too humble to acknowledge it.
But the boxing world is now finding out what the Fundoras already knew: Sebastian Fundora is special — and one of boxing’s most entertaining fighters.
Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season
After the 28-year-old southpaw’s star-turning 2025 campaign, he faces the next challenge in former unified welterweight world champion Keith Thurman on Saturday night, March 28, from inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Fundora’s WBC 154-pound title will be on the line against the 37-year-old Thurman, who is riding a two-fight win streak and is making his second appearance at 154. It will also mark only the third time Thurman (31-1, 23 KOs) has fought since his loss to Manny Pacquiao for the WBA welterweight title in 2019.
Advertisement
Inactivity and injuries have ravaged Thurman’s career, while Fundora keeps arcing silently upward.
This will be the third title defense for Fundora (23-1-1, 15 KOs), who has a strong argument as the best 154-pounder in the world, especially after his devastating seventh-round stoppage of Tim Tszyu in their July 2025 rematch. It’s the best Fundora has looked as a pro, mixing his long reach with precise power punches that eventually convinced Tszyu to stay on his stool after the seventh round.
“Sebastian has gone through a lot of hell to get here,” said Freddy, his father and trainer. “We have taken a lot [of criticism] in the past and there have been times when it was annoying.”
Advertisement
Freddy had a right to be annoyed — 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 said. “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 always given freedom to his son in the ring — though he acknowledges there were times when he would get frustrated when Sebastian could have used his jab, rather than allow an opponent to get inside and engage in a fire-fight. It used to be an ongoing battle Sebastian often waged with himself. He liked putting his foot down and firing, sometimes at elevated risk.
Advertisement
Who could forget Fundora’s nine-round war with Erickson Lubin in 2022, a Fight of the Year candidate, which saw Fundora knocked down for the first time in his career, then rise to stop Lubin in the ninth? His mental fortitude was confronted right in his grill, and he replied. When Thurman had to back out of the original Tszyu fight in March 2024 with a biceps injury that required surgery, it was Fundora who stepped in and won a split-decision blood bath and the WBC super welterweight title with it.
Sebastian Fundora’s breakout moment came in March 2024 against then-champ Tim Tszyu.
(Anadolu via Getty Images)
“I believe Sebastian can beat any 154-pounder in the world,” Freddy said. “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 frightening prospect for anyone getting in the ring with him.
Advertisement
“His focus is far better than it was, and he is maturing, and listening,” Freddy said. “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 more mature, patient fighter. The pieces are coming together. He always intended to use his distance, displaying one of the best jabs in the sport. He tended to get into unnecessary fire-fights when he was younger.
“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 said. “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.”
Advertisement
Perhaps Fundora’s best lesson came in his lone loss, a seventh-round stoppage to Brian Mendoza in April 2023 for the interim WBC super welterweight title. It was unexpected.
Though, it helped.
Sebastian took a year off and was given the opportunity to fight Tszyu 11 months later.
A new, patient, 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 said. “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.
Advertisement
“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 was hoping for a third fight, which featured Thurman, on the originally scheduled date of Oct. 25 in Las Vegas. But a hand injury forced Fundora out of training and a postponement.
Five months later, both fighters enter the ring with varying incentive.
Fundora’s past three fights include a pair of victories over Tszyu, and a stoppage win over Chordale Booker, while Thurman is fighting for his relevance as a world-championship contender. He is 2-1 over his past three fights, stopping Brock Jarvis in March 2025 — his first fight in three years — after he beat Mario Barrios in February 2022. The lone loss of Thurman’s career came against Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao, a split decision setback in July 2019. Thurman’s sporadic, uneven career has been pocked by inconsistency due to injury and inactivity.
Advertisement
It is something Fundora was hoping to avoid before the hand injury pushed this fight back.
“I definitely wanted do it, I would have fought four times in 2025, if everything went right,” he said. “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 a long fight for respect, and lately Fundora has even been thinking about getting security, because he gets mobbed when he goes out in public, especially at major fights. He and his family — including younger sister Gabriela Fundora, the sport’s undisputed flyweight champion — are incredibly approachable.
This is where Sebastian Fundora wants to be — a humble star whose time has come.
Advertisement
“Every moment you have to know where you are, and every step I took I recognized where I was,” he said. “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 pounds.
Read the full article here