The rangy Sebastian Fundora stuck it to his detractors by becoming a unified champion one fight after being spectacularly knocked out.
“The Towering Inferno” took home a split-decision over the previously unbeaten Tim Tszyu to capture the WBC and WBO 154-pound super welterweight titles.
Fundora took the spoils in the main event of the inaugural PBC Pay-Per-View available on Prime Video at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
One judge scored the fight 116-112 for Tszyu but was overruled by scores of 116-112 and 115-113 for Fundora. The fight was an absolute bloodbath as Tszyu suffered a horrific gash on his head, and Fundora broke his nose. The ring was soaked with claret from the two fighters.
The pre-fight favorite, Tszyu, looked in control in the first two rounds. The Australian landed straight right hands at will before running into an accidental elbow from Fundora in round two. The blow opened a massive cut on the top of his head. After receiving an inspection from the ringside physician, Tszyu fought on but was clearly affected by the blood caused by the cut.
To his credit, Tszyu went for it to decide a winner when he could have easily ducked out and taken a no-contest to fight another day.
With his vision compromised, Fundora took advantage despite also dealing with blood flowing out of his nose following round two. The underdog then focused on using his tremendous length to pepper Tszyu with jabs and consistently disrupt his attack.
Most of Fundora’s success with power punches came via the left hand, as he could land clean shots from the southpaw stance.
According to CompuBox stats, Fundora out-jabbed Tszyu 93-39 and threw 721 punches to Tszyu’s 400. Tszyu held an impressive 44% connect rate but, despite a 136 to 101 edge in power punches, was never able to hurt Fundora seriously.
Fundora became the second world champion in his family, following his sister Gabriela, the current IBF flyweight champion. Both are trained by their father, Freddy.
The doors of big-money fights and further unifications are now open to Fundora despite calls for the new champion to give Tszyu a rematch.
Even without the cut, Tszyu struggled with the size of his opponent from the get-go.
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