Fundora Stops Hadribeaj In Final Second To Retain WBC Title

One second remained when Sebastian Fundora found the left hand that spared him a decision after an awkward and frequently untidy defence of his WBC super welterweight championship. Ermal Hadribeaj went down at the end of the twelfth round, rose before the count reached ten and was stopped by referee Thomas Taylor. The official time was 2 minutes 59 seconds. Fundora retained his title for the fourth time, but the sudden finish should not obscure the difficulties the challenger presented before sustained punishment wore him down. At The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the champion had to work considerably harder than the closing blow alone might suggest.

Fundora entered with 24 victories, one defeat and one draw, including 16 wins inside the distance. His previous appearance had brought a sixth-round stoppage of Keith Thurman in March. Hadribeaj, an Albanian based in Miami, brought an unbeaten record of 23 victories and one draw, with eight stoppages. His unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten Bakary Samake in Germany had earned this mandatory challenge. Both men were comfortably below the championship limit, Fundora weighing 152.8 pounds and Hadribeaj 152.4. The physical contrast was nevertheless considerable. Fundora was the much taller man, but Hadribeaj had no intention of remaining at the end of his punches.

The challenger began effectively, crouching beneath Fundora’s attack and directing his right jab towards the body before bringing left hands over the top. His low position made him an inconvenient target and allowed him to work underneath the champion’s long arms. Fundora struggled to establish a settled rhythm. Early in the second round, however, a hard left caught Hadribeaj and forced him to hold while recovering. The challenger regained enough composure to answer with punches of his own before the bell. It was already apparent that Fundora would have to contend with more than a man intent merely on surviving his first championship opportunity.

Holding soon became the principal obstruction. Hadribeaj crowded Fundora, tied him up and tried to find room for short, looping punches between the clinches. Taylor deducted a point in the third round for excessive holding, but the penalty did not bring a lasting change in approach. Hadribeaj continued to land occasional left hands, and in the fourth he found Fundora with punches from both sides. The champion fought back out of the clinches, yet his defence remained sufficiently open for the challenger to punch upwards from his crouch. Hadribeaj’s method was troublesome, although the distinction between smothering an opponent and preventing him from fighting was becoming expensive.

The middle rounds gradually changed the terms of the contest. Fundora began finding room for uppercuts in the fifth and worked at Hadribeaj’s body during the sixth. Rather than waiting for a clean engagement at long range, he was increasingly prepared to do his work where the challenger wanted to fight. By the seventh, his uppercuts were landing repeatedly, and Hadribeaj’s earlier activity was taking its toll. The challenger still had enough determination to launch another attack at the beginning of the eighth, but his bursts were becoming harder to sustain. Fundora answered at close quarters and continued punching through the spaces that remained between their bodies. The contest was still physical, but the champion was now obtaining more useful work from it.

Hadribeaj continued to exchange on the inside during the ninth, refusing to concede the fight without resistance. Fundora’s pressure and body punching nevertheless made the later rounds increasingly uncomfortable for him. In the tenth, another body shot brought a further attempt to hold. Taylor warned Hadribeaj again in the eleventh and then deducted a second point when the clinching continued. The challenger was tired, his attacks had become intermittent, and his attempts to interrupt Fundora were costing him on the scorecards as well as restricting his own opportunities. Fundora kept looking for uppercuts with whichever hand remained free. It was laborious work, but it steadily reduced Hadribeaj’s resistance.

The champion pressed for a finish in the last round and finally secured it as the contest reached its closing moments. His left hand dropped Hadribeaj near the final bell. The challenger regained his feet, but Taylor waved the fight over after assessing him. Fundora’s record became 25 victories, one defeat and one draw, with 17 stoppages; Hadribeaj suffered his first professional defeat. The result preserved Fundora’s ambitions of collecting the remaining championships, although he acknowledged that the performance required attention. “But we’ll go back to the gym and fix some things,” he said. He wants the winner of the proposed unification between WBA and WBO champion Jaron Ennis and IBF champion Josh Kelly. For the moment, he retains his own belt after an evening settled by persistence and an exceptionally late finish.

I thought Fundora earned this win through his engine and punch selection, but his defence still gives better opponents something to work with. Hadribeaj crouched underneath those long arms, crowded him and landed looping shots over the top. Fundora too often followed him into the same position without making him pay on the way in. Having that reach means little if you keep surrendering the distance.

What I liked was how Fundora eventually made the inside work suit him. He found space for short uppercuts and kept attacking the body instead of getting frustrated and loading up at the head. Against someone determined to smother you, that takes patience. Hadribeaj’s approach became less effective as the punishment accumulated, and the holding increasingly replaced his own punching. He deserves credit for making Fundora uncomfortable, but you cannot keep grabbing and expect the referee to ignore it.

The final left hand was a proper finish to a hard shift, although I understand the argument over stopping Hadribeaj after he regained his feet with the final bell already gone. Fundora had earned the victory regardless; the debate concerns how it was recorded.

My concern looking towards someone like Ennis is straightforward. Fundora cannot assume he can absorb clean punches while getting his own work started. His stamina and inside punching are serious assets. He needs a more disciplined approach to distance and defence to make those assets count against a sharper, quicker opponent.