Junior middleweight contender Brian Mendoza pulled off a big shocker on Saturday night, when he picked up a brutal knockout of previously unbeaten Sebastian Fundora in round seven to capture the interim-WBC super welterweight title at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
“I never quit,” said Mendoza. “I kept going. You can beat me all you want, but if you don’t kill me, I’m coming back. They didn’t kill me in my career and it’s too late now, I’m getting better each time. I want to thank Fundora for taking this fight. He didn’t need to take it. It was really risky for where he was at.”
Mendoza (22-2, 16 KOs) entered the fight on the back of a big knockout victory over former unified champion Jeison Rosario.
In the seventh round of his bout with Fundora (20-1-1, 13 KOs), Mendoza landed a huge left hook and then followed up with a powerful left-right combo that put Fundora down for good.
“I saw he was open so I had to head in for the kill because I knew he wasn’t gonna stop coming either,” said Mendoza. “This is my moment, this is my time. I predicted everything that was going to happen in my past two fights and how they were going to end and everything.”
Mendoza, who now trains in Las Vegas with coach Ismael Salas, was down big on the cards in the first six rounds. The overall CompuBox stats saw Fundora out-land Mendoza 100 to 62 while also leading 60-54 twice and 59-55 at the time of the stoppage.
“I started losing a couple rounds but I didn’t care,” said Mendoza. “You’ll never see me give up. I would’ve given up years ago when I took some losses. I kept on sparring and look at me now. A year ago I was a swing bout after the main event, nobody cared who I was or what I was doing, this is proof. You keep working, you’re going to make it!”