LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora moved past game mandatory challenger Ermal Hadribeaj, scoring a dramatic twelfth-round stoppage officially in the final second of the TNT and DAZN broadcast main event from the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Fundora (25-1-1, 17 KOs) of Coachella, California had a much tougher time than many predicted as he opted to fight at mostly close range with the much shorter Hadribeaj (23-1-1, 8 KOs) of Miami Beach, Florida by way of Tirana, Albania for the majority of the contest.
After a close first round, Hadribeaj, 152.4, found success in the second, smothering Fundora, 152.8, and punching up in close.
The plan seemed to be working, but was also working on referee Thomas Taylor’s nerves. After a few warnings during round two and early in round three, Taylor deducted a point from Hadribeaj for holding.
Hadribeaj kept up with his smothering style and landed clean with hooks inside for much of the fourth. Fundora finally seemed to find an answer in the final seconds of the round, catching Hadribeaj with an uppercut.
Hadribeaj kept up with the inside pressure in the fifth and sixth, but even when Fundora briefly created space, he seemed willing to keep the fight at the only range the Albanian challenger could potentially find success.
In the seventh, it was Hadribeaj that looked to create space at times so he could land his sweeping left hook on his way back on the inside. Fundora’s best answer was still to take a step back and land his left uppercut. Still, the champion was struggling keeping pace with a challenger few had given much of a chance coming into the bout.
Fundora stemmed the tide a bit in the eighth as Hadribeaj was less successful staying on his chest or landing on the way in.
After Fundora outworked Hadribeaj for a stretch, the ninth closed with a brief back-and-forth exchange, with the champion warned for landing after the bell.
After another mauling round fought on the inside in the tenth, Hadribeaj pressed to begin the eleventh. Soon thereafter, Hadribeaj fell back into a little too much grappling for referee Taylor’s taste and was warned again. Moments later, Taylor deducted a point from Hadribeaj for the second time.
Much of the twelfth and final round looked like the preceding rounds before Fundora broke his left hand free from Hadribeaj’s clinch. With his hand free, Fundora landed with a sweeping left hook that spun Hadribeaj’s head. The champion quickly moved-in with another left hook to drop Hadribeaj hard to the mat. The challenger somehow recovered from laying flat on his back to make it to his feet. With the arena music already playing as the bell rang, referee Thomas Taylor opted to wave off the bout instead of allowing the fight to go to the cards.
Officially the bout ended at 2:59 of the twelfth and final round. Had the bout seen its conclusion, Hadribeaj was down on all three scorecards. Judge Tim Cheatham had it closest heading into the twelfth, 107-100, while judge David Sutherland had it 109-98 and judge Steve Weisfeld had it 108-99, all for Fundora.
After the bout, DAZN’s Chris Mannix asked how Fundora sees a unification fight playing out with the winner of a Jaron “Boots” Ennis-Josh Kelly bout.
“We will break them down,” said Fundora. “Like we did this guy and the guys before him.”
Former WBA super middleweight champion Armando Resendiz (17-3, 11 KOs) of South Gate, California by way of Guayabitos, Nayarit, Mexico was forced to earn every bit of a ten-round unanimous decision by a determined Koen Mazoudier (16-5-1, 6 KOs) of Umina, New South Wales, Australia in the semi-main event.
After a slow start in the first, Mazoudier, 166.8, was the first to open up in the second. Resendiz, 167, quickly got to work, as the two traded blows in the center of the ring for much of the back-and-forth round.
Resendiz, the WBA #4/WBO #5/WBC #12 ranked super middleweight, took charge of the third, breaking through the guard of Mazoudier to land clean combinations. Resendiz also flashed some excellent head movement on the inside as Mazoudier attempted to counter.
The first two minutes of the fourth resembled the third. Just as Mazoudier made an adjustment and landed in combination, Resendiz turned the tide back in the last 20 seconds. The Mexican backed Mazoudier up and landed a clean combo upstairs to close out the round.
The fifth could have been fought in the proverbial phone booth, as the two super middleweights leaned in and traded at close range on even terms.
Mazoudier had a solid sixth, taking a page out of Resendiz’s book, landing on the inside and utilizing constant head movement to duck the retorts from the former champion.
The seventh was again fought entirely at close range as each fighter let their hands go and had their moments, though Resendiz may have edged the round with a late flurry.
Resendiz was the first to utilize any sort of lateral movement in the eighth. Mazoudier quickly caught him clean and backed Resendiz near a neutral corner. The Mexican fought back well off of the ropes and became harder for the Australian to find the rest of the round.
Mazoudier had one of his better rounds in the ninth. Once Resendiz stopped moving, Mazoudier let his hands go, backing Resendiz to the ropes. This time, Resendiz was less successful fighting from this position and Mazoudier was more accurate.
Resendiz came out with renewed purpose in the tenth, eventually landing a multi-punch combo off Mazoudier’s cranium that had the Australian off balance. Resendiz chased the knockdown, but Mazoudier maintained his footing. Showing his toughness, Mazoudier took Resendiz’s final combination with his hands down and smiled back at the ex-champion as the fight came to a close.
After a highly entertaining bout, judges Max DeLuca and Don Trella scored the bout 97-93 and judge Eric Cheek had it 98-92 all for Resendiz.
“I knew it was going to be a tough fight,” said Resendiz through translator Sergio Mora after the bout. “He’s an Australian warrior. I knew it was going to be like this.”
Like everyone else at 168 pounds, Resendiz would love to line up a bout with Canelo Alvarez.
Middleweight prospect Marco Romero (16-0, 14 KOs) of Olathe, Kansas announced his presence before a national audience, stopping Braulio Matias Ferreira (8-4, 3 KOs) of Rosario, Uruguay early in round one.
After a brief feeling out process, Romero, 164.2, landed a sweeping right that dropped Ferreira, 162.8, to the seat of his pants. Ferreira managed to get to his feet, but was in no condition to continue. Referee Tony Weeks wisely waved off the contest at the official time of 1:54 of the first.
“He got bit by the Shark and no one gets up once they get bit by the Shark,” said Romero of the kayo.
In the highly competitive opening televised bout, Jaime Osuna (12-0, 5 KOs) of Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico maintained his perfect record, claiming an eight-round majority decision over Cristian Cangelosi (13-1-1, 5 KOs) of Brooklyn, New York by way of Palermo, Sicilia, Italy.
Osuna, 161.2, took no time to feel out Cangelosi, 160.8, as the bout began. Osuna came out swinging with power shots and landed a great percentage of his attempts. Cangelosi tried to hold on the inside and get back at range to box, but struggled to keep Osuna at bay.
Cangelosi settled in a little better in round two as Osuna scaled back his output a bit. Cangelosi landed with a counter right midway through the round that got Osuna’s attention.
Cangelosi continued to keep range and box for much of round three, but Osuna landed the most telling blow – a clean right counter that snapped the Italian’s head back along the ropes.
Cangelosi controlled the action in the fourth, opening up on the inside early, before boxing well back at range over the second half.
Osuna came out for round five with renewed purpose and rocked Cangelosi in the opening moments. Cangelosi tried to push off to create space as often as possible, but Osuna carried the round.
With much of the steam off both of their punches in the sixth, Osuna outworked Cangelosi. The Brooklyn native bounced back in the seventh, landing eye-catching counters and evading some of Osuna’s forward-moving attack.
Cangelosi closed out the fight strong in the eighth, capping the fight with a stiff right that snapped Osuna’s head back in the final seconds.
In the end, Cangelosi’s late surge was not enough. Judge David Hudson scored the bout even, 76-76, but was overruled by judges Tim Cheatham and Max De Luca, who both scored the bout for Osuna, 77-75.
In his Las Vegas debut, 17-year-old prospect David Garcia (8-0, 6 KOs) of Las Vegas scored a second-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Angel Carrillo (5-1-1, 2 KOs) of Oxnard, California.
The southpaw Garcia, 127.8, backed Carrillo, 126.8, up with the first left he landed in the early going of the round one. Garcia flashed some power, rocking Carrillo with a counter left to punctuate the opening round.
Garcia applied pressure in the early going of the second round, landing his shots and getting out of range before Carrillo could counter. Late in the round, with Carrillo retreating in a straight line, Lopez landed with two consecutive straight lefts to score a knockdown. Carrillo beat the count on wobbly legs, but referee Celestino Ruiz decided it was best to wave off the contest at 2:59 of the second.
The originally scheduled twelve-round co-main event was canceled on Saturday afternoon. Brandon Figueroa (27-2-1, 20 KOs) of Weslaco, Texas was scheduled to defend the WBA featherweight title against former bantamweight titleholder Tomoki Kameda (42-5, 23 KOs) of Osaka, Osaka, Japan. However, Figueroa came in .8 pounds over the 126-pound featherweight limit, forcing the WBA to strip him of the title at the weigh-in. The fight was still to take place, with the now vacant title on the line for Kameda, before Figueroa pulled out, citing weight-draining related illness.
Photos by Cris Esqueda/Premier Boxing Champions
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com
