Sebastian Fundora kept his pursuit of an undisputed championship strictly on track, though he cutting it as close as humanly possible with literally a second to spare on Saturday night at the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
The 6ft 5in southpaw retained his WBC super welterweight title in dramatic fashion, stopping a stubborn and resilient Ermal Hadribeaj with a sharp, decisive left hand at the 2:59 mark of the 12th and final round. With the victory, Fundora not only notched his fourth successful title defense but also handed Hadribeaj the first professional loss of his career, improving his own professional record to 25-1-1 with 17 knockouts while dropping Hadribeaj to 23-1-1.
Entering the high-stakes bout under the bright lights of Sin City, Fundora had made it clear that his ultimate sights were set on unifying the entire 154lb division. However, before any undisputed future could be mapped out, he first had to navigate a dangerous and highly motivated mandatory challenger.
Hadribeaj, an Albanian fighter based in Miami who earned his golden title opportunity through an impressive victory over the previously unbeaten Bakary Samake earlier in the year, proved to be a difficult puzzle to solve in the early frames. Crouching cleverly beneath Fundora’s imposing reach, Hadribeaj attacked the body with calculated aggression and landed looping shots over the top of the champion’s high guard.
Fundora caught his opponent cleanly in the second round, a flash of brilliance that altered the tactical landscape of the fight. Realizing the danger of trading blows at range with the lanky champion, Hadribeaj increasingly resorted to holding and clinching to disrupt the champion’s offensive rhythm and stifle his momentum.
The tactics drew the ire of the referee and the frustration of the crowd, resulting in Hadribeaj being docked championship points for holding in both the third and the 11th rounds. Despite the rough-house tactics and the constant grappling inside, Fundora methodically found room for his punishing uppercuts, steadily applying accumulated pressure through the middle rounds of the contest.
By the championship rounds, the wear and tear of Fundora’s body punching began to tell a definitive story.
“It was an interesting fight,” Fundora reflected in his post-fight remarks, analyzing the tactical shifts he had to make over the course of the grueling 12 rounds. “I had to go back and fight on the inside and show everyone again that I can still do that. It was dramatic to knock him out at the last second. But we’ll go back to the gym and fix some things.”
Elaborating on how the stoppage materialized in the dying moments of the fight, the champion explained that the groundwork for the knockout had been laid much earlier in the evening.
“I told the ref in the fourth round that I was hurting him,” Fundora said. “I kept landing body shots and was looking for that special shot to get him out of there. I was hitting him in the rib cage the whole time with the left hand and when I went up the middle, I heard the noise that he made. So I just kept touching that and knew it would break him.”
Now 28 years old, Fundora has put together an impressive five-fight winning streak since suffering a lone setback via a knockout loss to Brian Mendoza in April 2023. Hailing from Coachella, California, and affectionately nicknamed the "Towering Inferno" due to his unusual height and relentless pressure for a fighter of his division, Fundora famously captured both the WBC and WBO titles against Australian star Tim Tszyu in a thrilling encounter in March 2024. He has since followed up that breakout career moment with successful defenses against Chordale Booker, a rematch victory over Tszyu, and a win over Keith Thurman, before adding Hadribeaj to his resume.
Looking ahead, Fundora’s ambitions remain firmly fixed on the absolute summit of the sport. With the mandatory defense safely behind him, the WBC titleholder is already eyeing the next major challenges in the talent-rich weight class.
“I want to go for undisputed in this division,” Fundora stated clearly regarding his future plans. “We’ll break either Jaron Ennis or Josh Kelly down. Just like the last guy and the guy before that. We’ll keep breaking them down.”
The undercard at the Cosmopolitan delivered its own share of compelling action, highlighted by a bruising co-main event in the super middleweight division. Armando Resendiz improved his record to 17-3 by outlasting Australia’s Koen Mazoudier via a hard-fought unanimous decision across 10 rounds. The judges scored the bout 98-92, 97-93, and 97-93 in favor of Resendiz, reflecting a contest that was much tighter and more demanding than the final numbers might suggest.
Resendiz relied on punishing left hands through the middle phases of the fight, but Mazoudier showed incredible toughness, continuing to trade punches on the inside and mounting a notable late rally that kept the outcome in doubt. Resendiz answered with a strong finish, sending Mazoudier stumbling backward in the final minute to seal the judges’ verdict.
“We pulled this off because we had great preparation,” Resendiz said after the victory. “This was the kind of fight that I expected. I had to change my game plan and box and move a little bit because this was a very tough fight.”
Earlier in the evening, Marco Romero kept his unblemished record intact, moving to 16-0 with 14 knockouts by dispatching Matias Ferreira in explosive fashion. Romero uncorked a crushing right hand that ended matters at 1:54 of the first round in their scheduled eight-round super middleweight encounter.
“He was too slow,” Romero remarked succinctly about his quick night at the office. “His speed and experience didn’t matter.”
In another competitive preliminary bout, Jaime Osuna pushed his record to 12-0 by capturing a hard-earned majority decision over Cristian Cangelosi in an eight-round middleweight contest that tested both competitors from the opening bell to the final closing seconds.
“It was a fight that took everything I had from beginning to end,” Osuna acknowledged.
