Sebastian Fundora will defend his WBC and WBO junior middleweight titles next against Errol Spence in early 2025 in Texas.
Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) reportedly reached a deal with WBO mandatory and interim champion Terence Crawford to allow him to defend against Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) next.
If Fundora defeats Spence, he’ll face WBO mandatory Crawford later in 2025. A win for Spence would set up a possible rematch with Crawford. That could be a big fight as well.
How big is unknown because many boxing fans wouldn’t be interested in seeing a second fight between Spence and Crawford due to how one-sided their contest was last year, in July 2023. Crawford knocked out Spence in the ninth round in a totally one-sided fight.
Mike Coppinger broke the news that Fundora would fight Spence next, with Crawford stepping aside to let that big match take place.
Fans are excited about Spence taking on Fundora, but it could end badly for the 34-year-old. The 26-year-old Fundora is young, active, in his prime, and tall at 6’6″. This fight could end badly for Spence, who doesn’t believe in taking tuneups.
Spence hasn’t done anything to deserve a title shot against WBC and WBO 154-lb champion Fundora. Errol has been sitting for 15 months since losing to Crawford on July 29, 2023, and it’s not exactly fair that he’s allowed to jump the line in front of the other contenders in the WBC/WBO’s rankings to challenge Fundora for his belts.
Spence looked pretty faded in his fight against Crawford, his match against Yordenis Ugas in April 2022, and his clash against Danny Garcia in December 2020, 15 months before that.
The injuries and soft living that Spence has had since 2020 has contributed to a drop off in his game. His last three performances look nothing like the way he’d fought back in 2018 and earlier.
It’s unclear who Crawford will fight while he’s waiting for the smoke to clear from the Fundora vs. Spence fight. Given the 37-year-old Crawford’s age and recent lackluster performance against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd, he needs to return to the ring soon against one of the contenders so that he doesn’t allow more ring-rust to accumulate. Crawford didn’t look good coming off of a 13-month layoff to challenge Madrimov for his WBA junior middleweight title.
