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Last week a story by BoxingScene.com’s Keith Idec was published in which Sebastian Fundora tried to discredit Erickson Lubin’s (24-1) 6th round knockout victory over former unified junior middleweight champion Jeison Rosario last June.
“To be honest with that,” Fundora said, “we had Rosario here for camp, for when he was training for ‘Hammer.’ … If you were there for the sparring sessions, you woulda saw it.”
Fundora (18-0-1, 12 KOs) was then asked if he feels he softened up Rosario for Lubin.
“Yeah, I gave him to Lubin, honestly,” Fundora replied. “I gave him to Lubin on a silver platter. To be nice, that’s the nice way to say it.”
Fundora and Lubin will battle on Saturday night at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas in a Showtime televised main event. The winner will become the WBC interim champion and also the mandatory challenger to the winner of the May 14th Jermell Charlo-Brian Castaño rematch.
Lubin’s trainer Kevin Cunningham chuckled when he read Fundora’s comments and offered his own perspective on the chain of events.
“I saw Fundora’s statement where he’s trying to discredit Hammer’s win over Rosario. He sparred with a overweight and out of shape Rosario, prior to Rosario starting camp for Hammer. If he feels like he softened Rosario up for Hammer. I guess then Hammer served him up chopped liver with (Jorge) Cota. A fight that was stopped after Cota clocked Fundora with a overhand left,” Cunningham told BoxingScene.com in reference to Fundora’s win over Cota last May.
The fight was stopped in the 4th round with Cota still on his feet. Lubin also fought Cota, stopping him in 4 rounds in 2017 to hand the rugged Mexican his second professional loss.
The Lubin-Fundora telecast will also include Tony Harrison versus Sergio Garcia and Kevin Salgado against Bryant Perrella.
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