While a potential match between former welterweight titleholder Errol Spence Jr. and junior middleweight Sebastian Fundora has yet to be made official, it remains a fascinating fight that could wind up on one of Premier Boxing Champions’ pay-per-view slots on Amazon’s Prime Video.
“That’s an intriguing fight to me, just to see how Errol comes back after that loss to [Terence] Crawford, see how he performs at 154 pounds,” said Tim Smith, the vice president of communications at Haymon Sports, speaking to Kurt Emhoff on the Boxing Esq. Podcast. Al Haymon, a longtime boxing adviser, is the founder of Premier Boxing Champions. “We’ve got to see who his trainer’s going to be and whether that trainer will tweak his style or work with the style that he already has.”
Spence hasn’t fought since his July 2023 technical knockout loss to Crawford, who unified his own world title with Spence’s three, earning the Omaha star recognition as the undisputed welterweight champion. Since then, Spence and longtime trainer Derrick James have also split and sued each other over a disagreement about how much money Spence owed James.
Fundora topped Tim Tszyu in March for a pair of world titles in a bloody bout where Tszyu suffered a horrifying cut from an accidental collision between his head and Fundora’s elbow.
“I was really impressed with Fundora in the Tszyu fight because Fundora, for all of his height, he used to always fight inside,” Smith said. “But in that fight, with the cut and everything, he was able to use his height and keep Tim Tszyu at a distance. I thought I would never see that guy use his height. Is he going to go back to being an inside fighter if he fights Spence, or does he use his distance, does he use his height? That’s a really intriguing fight if that comes to fruition.”
Although there was a report in May that Spence and Fundora had agreed to fight this October, that does not appear to be the case. The fight isn’t officially on yet, though it also isn’t necessarily off.
Fundora was waiting on the results of this weekend’s Israil Madrimov-Crawford fight to see what his next steps could be.
Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.