Brian Mendoza, now holds the secondary form of the WBC world title at the junior middleweight division, after knocking out Sebastian Fundora, at the Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, California, a week and a half ago. Upsets are nothing new for Mendoza, who relocated from New Mexico to Las Vegas, Nevada for his fight career as he retired former unified 154-lbs world champion Jeison Rosario as a healthy underdog in his previous fight. In a six month timeframe, Mendoza went from being perceived as a high-level gatekeeper to one of the best fighters in the division. In short, Mendoza is a real-life Rocky.
Now Mendoza, who conducted this exclusive interview with ProBoxTV from his garage after a long day of running around at 5 PM pacific standard time still seemingly felt early with all the events he faced given the new obligations of winning such a high-profile fight. The always friendly and cordial Mendoza apologized for being three minutes early, as he broke his typical fifteen-to-twenty minutes early routine he typically holds himself to. First thing is first, Mendoza’s days of campaigning between the junior middleweight and middleweight divisions are now over, as Mendoza is looking to stay at 154 lbs in the near future.
"I'm fighting [at] 154 [pounds for now],” said Mendoza when speaking directly to ProBoxTV News. There are just too many great opportunities, it's such a great weight class where everybody will fight each other. [Also] all the top guys even have losses. [The fighters in the 154-lbs weight class] mix [it] up better than at middleweight. There is [Jermall] Charlo there's like a couple of names [at middleweight] and then there are some opponents that you could really build [your resume off] the names, but I feel like the true opportunities right now are gonna be at 154-lbs.”
As for his next fight. Mendoza sees the king of the division as Jermell Charlo, who holds all four widely recognized world titles in the junior middleweight division. Charlo is currently out of action as his previously scheduled fight against Tim Tszyu in January got postponed. Tszyu is now rumored to be fighting for the second time in 2023, electing not to wait for Jermell Charlo. Mendoza believes he has to wait for ‘the dust to settle’ between Charlo and Tszyu to see where his future lies at the moment.
As for Tim Tszyu, who appears to be a superstar in Australia, recently packed an arena in Australia when facing Tony Harrison. Mendoza welcomes the idea of fighting Tszyu in Australia and compares it to his fight with Sebastian Fundora. Mendoza feels that he has been up against before and is willing to face the great fighters of the world, whether it is on the road or at home.
“I believe I still have my passport,” said Mendoza when asked if he’d travel to Australia to face Tim Tszyu. “Of course, why not? you know, the thing about being a world champion is being able to go be a champion of the world. So it's not just fighting in one city, one state, or something. I would love to go over there. I just went to California against a California fighter with California judges and, I just went up against it anyway, and it made no difference to me. So I'm always open to [traveling to fight the best fighters possible].”
