ProBox recently caught up with undefeated junior middleweight contender Sebastian Fundora (19-0-1, 13 knockouts), ahead of his fight with Carlos Ocampo on 8 October in Carson, California.
Ocampo, a native of Mexico, fought in the USA for the first time in 2018, when he was stopped by Errol Spence Jr in the first round of a welterweight bout. Now, many fans see him as nothing more than a stay busy opponent “The Towering Inferno”, but Fundora is taking him very seriously.
“I would imagine that Ocampo learned from the Spence fight,” he told ProBox. “He’s on a twelve-fight win streak since then. The fans might look at it as a tune up, but he’s still an elite junior middleweight fighter. You can’t overlook him.”
“All of these fights are tough since I signed with PBC. Sergio Garcia was an undefeated fighter, Erickson Lubin only had one loss, Jorge Cota only had a few losses, Ocampo just has the one loss. All these fights are equally tough; it just depends on how I train.”
“We’re going to put on a show come October 8.”
Back in April, Fundora scored a RTD9 win over Erickson Lubin. Both fighters hit the canvas in an action-packed fight of the year candidate. Although it was a brutal affair and Lubin suffered gruesome facial injuries, Fundora walked away completely unscathed.
“Just two weeks after that fight, we went back into camp,” he said. “I think I proved to everybody on that night that I’m going to become a champion in this weight class.”
With that win, Fundora won an interim title and set himself up for an eventual shot at Jermell Charlo, the current undisputed 154-pound champion. He can’t wait to fight him.
“Of course, I want Charlo next,” Fundora told ProBox. “I’m the WBC mandatory. But if it’s not him, we’ll face another great fighter. We’ll stay busy. That’s the best thing to do in boxing.”
Charlo is tentatively scheduled to face Australian Tim Tszyu early next year, which means Fundora will have to wait for his turn. No matter the outcome of that bout, he wants the winner.
“I would like to fight both of them, honestly. They’re both top fighters in my division. I see Charlo vs Tszyu as a 50-50 fight. They’re going to handle their business, and then hopefully we got next.”
Michael Montero can be found on social media via @MonteroOnBoxing. His show “The Neutral Corner” can be seen every Monday on YouTube and heard on audio podcast platforms around the world.
