Sebastian Fundora stops Chordale Booker in fourth round to retain unified junior middleweight titles

Unified WBC and WBO junior middleweight Sebastian Fundora entered Saturday’s fight with Chordale Booker as a heavy favorite to successfully make the first defense of his world championships. The 6-foot-6 champion had slipped as a heavy favorite before, losing an April 2023 bout to Brian Mendoza by knockout, but had no such missteps against Booker, dominating the action before scoring a fourth-round stoppage.

Fundora’s jab was the dominant weapon in the fight early, forcing Booker to navigate past stiff shots if he wanted to be close enough to land his own shots. Booker’s success came when he was able to throw right-hand counters from his southpaw stance that caught Fundoar leaving his head on the center line.

Booker tried to turn up his offensive output in the thrid round, throwing punches in combinations. Fundora was happy to meet the aggression, reverting to his willingness to brawl despite his towering frame, and he began to sting Booker with left hands even as he began to bleed from his nose.

Booker remained an active threat with looping shots but Fundora found success with the uppercut in the fourth round, landing a trio that had Booker reeling before hitting the canvas for the first knockdown of the fight. Seeing Booker was still on unsteady legs as he beat the count, Fundora pounced, letting loose with a flow of punches that drove Booker into the ropes where he covered up helpless to stop the onslaught until the referee jumped in to call a halt to the action at the 2:51 mark of the round.

Fundora had been out of action for just shy of a year after winning his two titles in a bloody war with Tim Tszyu. Despite the layoff, Fundora said he had been in camp for the better part of the year.

“I felt ready this whole time,” Fundora said in his post-fight interview. “I’ve been working very, very hard this past year. We went into camp in May of last year after the Tszyu fight. There was a misunderstanding of me having a broken nose but we were working the whole time. Now, I successfully defended my two titles. I just got note that if I defend my WBO five times I can become super champion as well, so, the sky is the limit.”

Junior middleweight is a deep division filled with dangerous fighters but Fundora sits in a position of power as he holds two of the four world championships at 154 pounds. Fundora made it clear he intends to become undisputed champion, just like his younger sister Gabriela Fundora, who became undisputed flyweight champion in November.

Before that happens, Fundora, 27, is staring down a fight with another talented young fighter in 22-year-old Xander Zayas.

“I’d love to be undisputed champion like my sister, but whoever they have for me next,” Fundora said. “… We just got told the WBO mandatory is the Puerto Rican kid Xander Zayas, a talented fighter. Whoever, whoever. We have two belts and we have to defend them and if anybody is willing to unify, let’s do that too.”

The fight marked the second time Booker had taken a step up in competition only to be brutally turned away. In 2022, Booker was stopped in the first round by Austin “Ammo” Williams. He put together six consecutive wins to earn his first world championship opportunity against Fundora but the level of competition did not prepare him for the champ.