“Towering Inferno” Sebastian Fundora Insists There’s Room for Growth!

The height of achievement for Sebastian Fundora in winning the WBC and the WBO super-welterweight Championships and now he’s visiting Mexico, receiving his Green and Gold Belt, promising to be back in the ring this November.

A titanic and bloody willpower testing fight, to defeat Tim Tszyu, who bled profusely from a cut forehead, while Sebastian’s corner had to cope with the flow seeping from a broken nose, which has now fully healed. Sebastian recalls with a touch of irony: “Yes that’s boxing. You get hit in boxing. Yet…I’ve been bleeding from my nose my whole life. That’s nothing different. The Ref would come to our corner at the end of every round, just like he’d go to Tim Tszyu’s, and ask us if we were OK? But we were ready for this fight and even fifteen rounds fight, if it had to be.”

Sebastian underlined and explained that he pursued and followed the strategy of utilizing his six feet five-and-a-half-inch height and eighty inches reach saying: “We had a full year to work since that last fight and in the last two fights as well as this one, I was displaying a solid jab. We had a strategic plan and I stuck to it. We wanted to show a different style for the fans.”

Tim was a touch critical of Sebastian getting stuck into a juicy hamburger at lunchtime during fight week, but Sebastian robustly relished it and with his characteristic broad smile quipped: “It didn’t do me any harm. I came in on weight. if it should bother anyone, it should be me. What I eat doesn’t make him go to the bathroom. We are fully focused on titles and I’m just happy to be world Champion.”

So what’s next. Sebastian again smiles: “I want whoever is willing to fight. We had some big names calling us out. Terence Crawford, Errol Spence. A rematch with Time Tszyu sounds great too, so these are great fights. I am the person at super-welterweight, so BRING IT ON!”

Sebastian is convinced that training camps are learning grounds rather than fights: “With this camp, we had a year to work on the last stuff. With the fights it’s just showing everyone what we can do. I’m glad the fans enjoyed my boxing skills. I want to show them I can do different things and they appreciated this

“Now as world champion, it’s going to be easier to fight fights. If being a world champion is what it takes to get those names so be it! Having a Green and Gold Absolute Belt means I’m doing my job right. At the top, at the pinnacle at one hundred and fifty four.”

The possibility of moving up a weight division is not yet an issue. Sebastian says he’s fine at 154 and is not pushing it: “I do a hard camp involving a lot of work to get where we are at. As of now…I’m comfortable. My sister Gabriela and I are now both world champions and she beat me to it. We’ve made history.”

Gabriela who is IBF flyweight champion was there on Sebastian’s Fight Night, her face etched with tension and focused. She said: “It was exciting. I know he worked so very hard, as I was in the training camp with him. To be able to display his boxing on that night was very good indeed. What Sebastian worked upon in training camp, he then put into to the ring, and it made non believers…believe.

“Us being champions is exciting and it’s history. To be the first brother and sister simultaneously world champions is in the record books of boxing. We train together, we are here in Mexico together. Each of us has someone to lean on.”

Sebastian agrees: “It’s motivational as we help each other reach higher goals. It’s also competitive. She beat me to the championship, but I’m the first unified. So as of now…I’m in the lead. So I’m going to hold on to this for as long as I can. She looks up to me and I look up to her and we also have our father Freddy as our Coach, so it’s a family affair.”

and just how did Sebastian become so tall, although he’s modest and not lofty. He thinks: “We can probably blame the milk and the broccoli. I eat a lot but for some reason my fast metabolism converts it into height. I grew in inches upwards…not sideways. Who knows if I’m still growing? Do I look taller?

“We have worked very hard. It’s a dream come true for our family and everyone who saw us making it up to this level. I’m extremely grateful to be here and to be recognized by everyone in the boxing world.”