Terence Crawford and Sebastian Fundora were active junior middleweight champions from 2024-25, but their paths never crossed in the ring.
Crawford and Fundora were in the same space at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on Saturday, but in different roles. Fundora, the WBC titleholder, was defending his title with a buzzer-beating stoppage win against mandatory challenger Ermal Hadribeaj, while retired Crawford was assessing the action as an analyst for the DAZN and TNT broadcast.
Fundora outlasted Hadribeaj in an ugly fight, and the turbulence sustained during the ride was not to Crawford's liking.
"The unorthodox style gave Fundora a lot of problems," Crawford said during the post-fight show. "[The positive was that] he got the job done by any means necessary. That's the number one thing that I took from the fight. When in doubt, get the win, and look better in the next fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-202VJ2DHY
"The most dangerous thing about Fundora is [the opponent] getting punched on the end of his punches. So you gotta take that risk of getting punched by coming in.
"It was somewhat of a competitive fight because Hadribeaj was doing well from the first couple of rounds. And then it just started declining because you saw Fundora start picking up the pace. Credit to Fundora; he did what he had to do. But at the same time, I would like to see more. He's getting hit with those overhand lefts, overhand rights, and he's not throwing the right hook. I'm like, where's the right hook? This guy didn't throw the right hook, not one time. And he's gonna need that if he fights guys like Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz."
Crawford took to social media after the fight and offered what he believes would be the X-factor in a potential undisputed title fight between Fundora (25-1-1, 17 KOs) and Ennis (36-0, 32 KOs).
"Boots too fast for Fundora," Crawford wrote on X.
Ennis, the WBA and WBO champion, is slated to face IBF titleholder Josh Kelly in a title unification fight in January, with the winner expected to face Fundora after that.
Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan
