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Sebastian Fundora And Errol Spence Jr. Fight Off, WBO Clarifies Why They Wouldn’t Sanction Bout

Sebastian Fundora And Errol Spence Jr. Fight Off featured image
Errol Spence Jr. will no longer be fighting Sebastian Fundora as has been rumored over the past year. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

The proposed Sebastian Fundora and Errol Spence Jr. bout appears to have finally been cancelled after Spence reportedly pulled out of the bout. With Spence further coming off a loss while having been inactive for more than a year, the Fundora-Spence bout was essentially pointless on a competitive basis for multiple reasons; reasons that had also led the WBO to disallow their title to be defended by Fundora if he would step into the ring. Now that Spence appears to have fallen off as an opponent for Fundora, the WBC and WBO super welterweight champion will reportedly be looking to face a genuine 154-pound contender.

From the very start of the rumors depicting Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KO’s) and Errol Spence Jr. (28-1, 22 KO’s) stepping into the ring, the fight looked to be a mismatch in the making. Numerous reasons dictated why, though the WBO recently substantiated on these when its president, Gustavo Olivieri, came out to explain why they had refused to sanction Fundora-Spence.

The WBO would not sanction Fundora/Spence due to the latter being (1) inactive for 1 year & 5 months; (2) a TKO loss in last bout; (3) not rated in 154 lbs., & 4) has never fought in 154 lbs,Olivieri stated.

Ruling otherwise would be a disservice to the rest of the 154 world-rated contenders.

Last year, Fundora had been granted an exemption to voluntary defend his WBO super welterweight (154 lbs) title instead of facing WBO interim champion Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KO’s), who had further been designated by the WBO as his mandatory challenger. However, as soon as the news came out of Fundora potentially facing Spence, the WBO came out immediately to clarify Fundora’s WBO title would not be on the line if he were to face Spence.

Despite this, Fundora appeared headstrong in wanting to make a fight with Spence, even with the former unified welterweight (147 lbs) champion’s inactivity, amongst other issues; suggesting Fundora was mainly in search of a household name that he would not only be able to beat and further net a fair payday for.

According to the latest reports, however, this move has backfired for Fundora after sources revealed the Fundora-Spence fight was off:

The Sebastian Fundora-Errol Spence title fight is now off, sources tell ESPN. Fundora, the unified junior middleweight champion, is now seeking a new opponent for the first defense of his two titles,ESPN’s Mike Coppinger stated on January 16th. 

The fight was originally planned for October and then was slated for March 29.

Errol Spence Jr. has since come out himself to hint at his own unreadiness having led to the collapse of the fight:

I’ll be back when I’M ready.Spence posted on Twitter/X a day after Coppinger’s report, suggesting there had been a push from handlers behind the scenes to push him into a fight with Fundora despite Spence not being prepared enough according to his own statement.

Since his July 29th stoppage loss to Terence Crawford in 2023, Errol Spence has not returned to the ring and continues to be considered inactive according to most of the ranking boards. The only organization that appears to have ignored Spence’s time out of the ring and the fact he has not competed at 154 lbs since 2015―when he faced Phil Lo Greco―is the WBC who has inexplicably listed Spence at #1 in their super welterweight rankings.

With Spence falling off as an opponent for Sebastian Fundora, the unified 154-pound champion will be forced to find a suitable opponent during his voluntary title defense period. The stakes are further upped for Fundora as it had already been made clear by the WBO that he would need to face a top 15 super welterweight contender or risk losing his WBO title.

This would mean that Sebastian Fundora will not only be matched against tougher opposition than an inactive Errol Spence Jr. could provide, he would also not be able to rake in the same amount of earnings for his chosen opponent with none of the available 154-pound contenders currently boasting a higher reputation than Spence.

According to BoxingScene, Premier Boxing Champions (PBC)―Fundora’s management/broadcasting/promotional company―is further struggling to arrange pay-per-view (PPV) shows this year and Fundora’s next match might see him compete on a non-PPV card rather than the PBC’s announced PPV cards for February 1st and March 1st.

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