Sebastian Fundora gears up for his fight against Keith Thurman on March 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The Coachella Valley world champion makes the third defense of his WBC super welterweight title, headlining a PBC PPV on Prime Video.
Fundora (23-1-1, 15 KOs) of West Palm Beach, Florida, and Thurman (31-1, 23 KOs) of Clearwater, Florida, were originally scheduled to clash last October, but the contest was delayed after Fundora suffered a hand injury.
A few weeks away from the matchup, Fundora appears unaffected by Thurman’s talking, saying, “Keith’s trash talk is good for TV.” The 28-year-old enters the PPV headliner as the A-side for the first time in his career.
Thurman, 37, is a former unified welterweight champion who looks to pull off an upset and once again claim one of the major titles.
‘I’m not distracted by the talking’
“Camp has been good since recovering from the hand injury,” Fundora said. “We never stopped training, we just slowed down on some things that we do. We always figure out ways to work, because this is an all-year sport. This isn’t seasonal. I don’t think about this as a training camp. This is my job. This is a lifestyle.”
“Having more time to focus on one opponent is always a blessing. We wish it didn’t happen this way with the injury, but we’ll take advantage of the extra time. It was disappointing to have to postpone the fight, but things happen in boxing and in life. You just have to roll with the punches. Not being able to use my hands as much as I wanted was challenging. For a period of time, we couldn’t do that. So I had to figure out a way to make sense of it.”
“Beating this former world champion will make a big statement. I still feel like I’m at the top of the division. I don’t think we’ve lost any momentum, we just had to reschedule. We’re not hiding from anybody. This is gonna remind everyone that we are at the top.”
“I liked Thurman’s performance against Danny Garcia. Garcia was also a top name, and those two clashing together was a great fight, and Thurman getting the victory showed how great of a fighter he was.”
“Keith’s trash talk is good for TV, that’s what I’ll say. He’s always been the bad guy going into a fight because of that. And he backs it up a lot. But this time he’s not gonna be able to back it up.”
“I’m not distracted by the talking. It doesn’t bother me one bit. Maybe if he wasn’t as well-known as he is, it could have caught me off guard. But when I step into the ring with these guys, I expect them to hate my guts. I expect that they wanna get rid of me. That’s boxing. We’re in a competitive sport, and we want to do the same thing to each other. It’s nothing personal, but we both gotta do what we gotta do.”
‘I’m fighting one of the best fighters of this era’
Sebastian Fundora prepares for his fight against Thurman with his father and trainer, Freddy Fundora, at their mountain home training camp. He is coached alongside his sister, Gabriela Fundora (17-0, 9 KOs), who is scheduled to make the third defense of her undisputed flyweight title against Australia-based Viviana Ruiz Corredor (10-2, 5 KOs) of Colombia on March 14 in Anaheim, California.
“This isn’t easy living right here in the mountains,” Fundora said. “I don’t even know how much snow we have, but it’s a lot. It’s past my ankles already, and we ran in it this morning. There are lots of obstacles training up here, but we still work and come to win and be the best.”
“Having Gabriela training alongside me is a good reminder that shows me what’s working and what needs to be done. Watching her fight is gonna give me a good IQ lesson for what can work for me in this fight and what can’t.”
“This is the Fundoras’ first pay-per-view main event as the A-side. We’re very blessed that Las Vegas is taking us in with open arms. I think every time we fought in Vegas and at MGM, it’s been a great fight. I’m fighting one of the best fighters of this era, so make sure you tune in and watch this live. You’re gonna see the king of 154 do his thing all over again.”
Among the Fundora vs Thurman undercard bouts, Cuba’s Yoenli Hernandez (9-0, 8 KOs) faces Cleveland’s Terrell Gausha (24-5-1, 12 KOs) at middleweight.
Miami-based Frank Sanchez (25-1, 18 KOs) of Cuba and Richard Torrez Jr. (14-0, 12 KOs) of Tulare, California, square off in an IBF heavyweight title eliminator.
A super middleweight bout features Elijah Garcia (17-1, 13 KOs) of Glendale, Arizona, against Kevin Newman II (18-3-1, 11 KOs) of Los Angeles.