The WBO has ordered that Sebastian Fundora must make a mandatory junior middleweight title defense against Terence “Bud” Crawford, who won the interim title on Aug. 3.
Fundora and Crawford have 30 days to reach an agreement for the bout, or a purse bid will be ordered.
Previously, it had been thought that Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KO) would be facing Errol Spence Jr in the fall, but there hasn’t been much notable movement on that, at least publicly (or leaked). Fundora, 26, upset Tim Tszyu on short notice in March to win the WBC and WBO titles in Las Vegas.
Fundora’s team has indicated that they would like to keep both title belts, and that if the WBO did order a Crawford fight, they would likely be going through with it in order to avoid being forced to vacate.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KO) made his move up to 154 lbs earlier this month, beating Israil Madrimov to win the WBA title and also the interim WBO belt, which was vacant, and also realistically didn’t much need to exist.
Crawford would seem fairly unlikely to fight again by year’s end, as the 37-year-old hasn’t fought two times in a calendar year since 2019, but boxer schedules have changed a bit when they’re backed by the money of Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh, so it’s not impossible that we could see Crawford again before the calendar turns over to 2025.
If the fight does actually happen, it could be a fascinating style matchup. Crawford has moved up from 135 lbs to 154 over his career, winning at least one world title at four weights and going undisputed twice, and is a pound-for-pound generational great.
But Fundora is about 6’5” or so, which would tower over the 5’8” Crawford, and there are at least some questions about Crawford’s power at 154, because he never seemed to really get to Israil Madrimov too much. Fundora’s height, youth, and fearlessness could be really intriguing against Crawford, but the pure skill, experience, and spitefulness of “Bud” could also give Fundora a terrible night.