Top super heavyweight contenders Sebastian “The Towering Inferno” Fundora and Erickson “Hammer” Lubin delivered an instant classic Saturday night, as Fundora won the interim WBC Super Welterweight Title via the following TKO nine rounds in the SHOWTIME main event from the Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, part of the Hilton Curio Collection in an event featured by top boxing champions.
(Image source: Esther Lin / SHOWTIME)
In a round that was relived with pre-fight hype, both men hit the bat and displayed immense strength to recover from their knocks and continue to deliver big hits. It was the six-foot, six-inch-tall Fundora, who headed off with a hit from the upper right that sent Lubin to the field in the final seconds of the second half.
Fundora said: “I think this is probably my best performance ever. “It was a back-and-forth fight. He actually brought his hammer but I decided to bring my drill. The top lane landed like no other. The upper cut is my lucky punch. I’m here in Vegas, so I feel a bit lucky, and that’s my lucky punch. It lands most of the time with people. Southpaw. Right hand. It’s not important. Once I found that, I felt like the job was done. ”
Despite showing up with shaky legs after the second half, Lubin recovered in the last minute of the third to leave Fundora bloody with a series of headers. Lubin won three of the first four innings on all three scorecards, buoyed by a battered body attack against his taller opponent.
In round seven, Fundora and Lubin enter into a sure-fire contender of the Year, as they both suffered serious damage. Fundora’s relentless volume began to show dividends on Lubin’s face, which began to swell from damage in the frame. However, Lubin showed championship mettle by turning the tide with a relentless series of hooks that brought Fundora to his knees, his first time playing professionally.
Fundora said: “I got a good punch and I didn’t feel like I needed to get hit again so I got on my knees to catch my breath and I recovered. “I purposely took one knee. I knew I had to tie my knees because if I kept getting beaten up like that it wouldn’t be smart for me and I wouldn’t be able to remember myself.”
After getting up from the knockdown, Fundora recovered to beat Lubin 26 to 12 and 28 to 3 in rounds eight and nine, respectively, according to CompuBox. Overall, Fundora beats Lubin 255 to 149, while Lubin has a 40% to 36% advantage in punch accuracy. Lubin was soon successful with his jab, landing 18 in the first three rounds, but only connecting with 15 for the rest of the action.
After the one-sided ninth round, and with swelling continuing to develop around Lubin’s face, his coach Kevin Cunningham ordered referee Russell Mora to stop the match, officially ending the match by TKO after nine rounds. In injury time, Lubin led 85-84 on the referee’s two cards, with the third referee giving a fight score of 85-85.
Fundora said: “I think it was the right decision for Kevin Cunningham to stop the fight. “His face went from round one to round nine. It completely transformed and there was a lot of blood coming out. He is a tough fighter. He’s been in the game the whole time but there’s no need to be injured that much.”
Lubin was taken to the UMC Trauma Center for further observation after the battle. As for Fundora, he puts himself in a position to face the winner of an uncontested £154 belt rematch between Jermell Charlo and Brian Castaño, which takes place May 14 on SHOWTIME.
Fundora said: “I see Charlo winning the fight against Castaño. “I feel he will be too strong for the second Castaño. If Castaño wins, that’s great too. I just want to go after all of them. This is a temporary belt, so I want to be world champion. I want the real deal.”
In the co-main event, former super-heavyweight world champion Tony “Superbad” Harrison (29-3-1, 21 KOs) came to a unanimous decision, narrowly beating rival Sergio Garcia (33- 2, 14 KOs) with a score of 10 rounds.
“I beat a guy who just played against a guy who’s in the main event right now,” Harrison said. “Muscle is the way on the street, but skill pays the price.”
Garcia put pressure on right from the start, finding a way to round up Harrison and trap him on the ropes in an attempt to become the third boxer to ever stop the Detroit native. However, Harrison quickly adjusted his tactics, and in the fourth round, Garcia repeatedly used strong stabs to stop Garcia.
“All I needed to do was throw a good punch, but I didn’t,” Garcia said. “Harrison fought his battles and was very clever with his stabs and elusive abilities, the main credit to him.”
As the fight progressed, Harrison varied his attacks and repeatedly landed powerful blows to Garcia’s head. Harrison dominated the punch stats, tied with 197 punches to Garcia’s 103, though Garcia threw more than 100 punches (592-491). Harrison’s sharpness is also reflected in the 51% connection rate for power punches.
Harrison said: “He was swinging over the fence. “When he missed, all I heard was ‘wow!’. I feel it. I’m trying to throw a few more counter-attacks in the middle. My composure is everything. ”
Garcia continued to compete throughout the match and was determined to keep moving forward until the final bell, but veteran Harrison showed an understanding of the ring as the Spaniard’s punches never came. might annoy him. After 10 rounds, all three judges gave Harrison a score of two 100-90 and one score of 98-92.
“I could show all I wanted, but the bottom line was I needed to win and instead I lost two games in a row,” Garcia said. “The reality is that I’m not at championship level yet, but I’ll keep fighting.”
“The first thing I would do, I haven’t seen my kids for six months,” Harrison said. “I want to see my kids. My step two, I have a gym called Superbad Fitness. Every time it rains, it floods inside my gym. My job is to find people who can donate to our nonprofit that saves about a hundred kids who work out in my gym every day. That was step number two for me. Step number three for me, I’m going on vacation. ”
In the opening match of the televised match, super-competitors Kevin Salgado (14-0-1, 9 KOs) and Bryant Perrella (17-3-2, 14 KOs) tied in 10 innings. .
The tactical situation saw Perrella set up his shot from the start, a punch he landed 64 times during the competition. Perrella, who was coached by Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr., combined consistent movement with impact, which slowed Salgado with consistent execution of offensive behavior.
“I thought my game planning and execution was great,” Perrella said. “I do smart boxing. I broke him. I won’t run away from him. He just throws big punches whenever I want to step in just to try to knock me down with one punch. I continued to throw at him in the face. Hit the body. Left hand. I hurt you. Everything is going great and it looks like I’ve scanned all the innings.”
As for Salgado, he can keep the match close with a consistent body attack, knocking out Perrella 44-27 in body shots, in addition to having a 37-34 advantage in power punches. . Perrella landed in the most impactful match of the punch, connecting on a sharp upper-left cut that tripped Salgado in the fifth round.
All three judges agreed to only three out of ten innings during the tight competition, which ultimately resulted in a tie with scores of 97-93 for Perrella, 96-94 for Salgado and a draw 95-95 . After the fight, both men believed they had done enough to raise their hands.
“I’m shocked by this decision,” said Perrella, who fought to hold Tony Harrison on his last outing before Saturday night. “Two consecutive draws. I put my all into this and I got robbed at the end of the day. It’s a hard pill to swallow. I easily beat him. He barely landed any punches. I don’t know what more I can do. I did my best. That’s what it is.”
“I feel like I won,” Salgado said. “All Perrella did was run around and get away from me. Maybe if I applied a little more pressure, that final judge would lean more toward me. Perrella continued to throw her jabs but almost never connected. I think tonight is definitely a positive step and in the right direction to become the next Mexican star on American soil, and I look forward to delighting the fans with more Mexican-style matches in the future.”
Saturday’s SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING will replay on Sunday, April 10 at 9 a.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME, and Monday, April 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME ®.
