Rising contender Brian Mendoza scored a career-defining upset win, blasting out the previously unbeaten Sebastian “The Towering Inferno” Fundora in round seven in what may be the clubhouse leader for Knockout of the Year to capture the interim-WBC super welterweight title live on Showtime Saturday night from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
“I’m good, for one second I turned off, but I guess that’s boxing, it happens,” said Fundora. “You just get caught with a punch. I did some punching and then I got caught you know. He was throwing that overhand right all night and I was dodging and dodging, but in boxing the second you fall asleep, you get punished.”
Having scored back-to-back knockouts to earn this fight, Mendoza (22-2, 16 KOs) connected on a picture-perfect left hook early in round seven that badly hurt Fundora (20-1-1, 13 KOs), and followed up with a powerful left-right combo that put Fundora down for good.
Mendoza, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-native who now trains in Las Vegas with coach Ismael Salas, looked to show his boxing ability early and kept his distance from Fundora while peppering body shots. As the fight progressed, Mendoza looked to try to close the distance and keep Fundora from gaining leverage on his punches, but was met with a consistent stream of uppercuts.
The Fundora attack caused blood to start coming from Mendoza’s nose in round five, as it appeared the previously unbeaten fighter was on his way to wearing out another opponent with a non-stop onslaught of power punches. The overall CompuBox stats saw Fundora out-land Mendoza 100 to 62 while also leading 60-54 twice and 59-55 on the cards at the time of the stoppage.
Mendoza was emotional following his career-best victory, viewing the win as a culmination of his comeback following setbacks earlier in his career.
“It was a good punch,” said Fundora. “I didn’t recognize that moment, but I’m fine. I’m healthy now, and I’ll be back. I’ll be back to take over the division and this is a step up and a step down. It happens, but I’ll be back. I’m not sorry I took this fight, this is boxing. We gotta fight and we have to make these good fights. Congratulations to Brian Mendoza, he did his thing, but like I said, I’ll be back.”