Rising contender Brian Mendoza scored a spectacular upset win, blasting out the previously unbeaten WBC interim super welterweight champion Sebastian “The Towering Inferno” Fundora on Saturday night.
“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.”
Having scored back-to-back knockouts to earn this fight, Mendoza (22-2, 16 KOs) connected on a picture-perfect left hook early in round seven that badly hurt Fundora (20-1-1, 13 KOs), and 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.”
The overall CompuBox stats saw Fundora out-land Mendoza 100 to 62 while also leading 60-54 twice and 59-55 on the cards 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!”
Brian Mendoza vs Tim Tszyu be a great fight while waiting for charlo to healed
This kids got heart, Bring on Tszyu,
congrats to mendoza and now we get to see what kind of heart Fundora has lets see if he can bounce back like a throwback fighter would or will be a product of todays generation in which one tough loss and they basically fall off completely
Fundora’s chin is sticking out all night. Sure his fights are exciting but he is unlikely to change his strips. He is a poor man’s Mark Breland.
Very good comparison.
Brian Mendoza is quite a feel good story. He seems to have learned a lot from his early set backs and sounds very positive and grateful.
Hopefully he stays true to himself and continues to do what got him here.
Same fate for Garcia against Tank, like Fundora, they don’t move their head. This was a train wreck waiting to happen. Fundoras chin will be checked once again. Give Lubin credit for putting a dent in it, Mendoza just finished the job. No shade, the kid just don’t have it. Mendoza showed good defensive boxing, feinting, and moved in and out, staples of effective boxing.
Unless Garcia pulls out. He has 12 days to escape.
Brian was getting beat up to the KO win, his nose/mouth were bleeding, he was holding a lot, referee warned him, to me it was a lucky punch, or a punch thrown at the right moment. It is funny how a single punch can erased what happened up to the 7th round, judges scorecards up to the KO cannot be erased though.
Makes no difference, Fundora got KTFO. Move on Mendoza gets his shot.
It is just a matter of perspective…. Mendoza was not as dominant as he thinks, selective memory can comeback to haunt you. He face was bloodied mess. Yes, he won because of a lucky left hook, or a well placed left hook. If the fight had continue for 2 more rounds, Brian would have gotten stopped.. Too bad IFs do not work…
In a rematch, Fundora will win, but I dont think the rematch will happen. Against Charlo I dont see a chance for Brian. It could be that I am biased against BM
It is just a pity for Fundora, he was so dominant and then got caught. Fundora needs to make some radical changes on his corner, he needs to learn to use his height and reach advantage. Change his coach; Papa Fundora was telling him, Brian is not doing anything. At the conclusion of the fight, Papa Fundora instead of asking his son, Are you ok? or reassuring him, “Don’t worry we will get him,” was scolding him.
I saw this coming the way Fondura stays in the pocket with absolutely no defense whatsoever.