Tim Tszyu will reportedly now be defending his WBO junior middleweight title against replacement opponent Sebastian Fundora after Keith Thurman needed to be pulled from the March 30th event on Prime PPV due to a bicep injury. Interestingly, PBC will keep the event on PPV.
Fans are grumbling at the March 30th event remaining on PPV, priced at $75, considering that Fundora (20-1-1, 13 KOs) is coming off a 7th-round knockout loss to Brian Mendoza and an 11-month layoff. Tszyu beat Mendoza with ease in his last fight in October. This event now has ‘Flop’ written all over it.
Breaking: Tim Tszyu will now defend his WBO junior middleweight title vs. Sebastian Fundora on March 30 in Las Vegas in the main event of PBC’s inaugural PPV on Prime Video, sources told ESPN. Keith Thurman suffered a biceps injury in training and was forced to withdraw.
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) March 18, 2024
While some boxing fans are pleased with Fundora being used as the replacement for Thurman, the hardcore fans that follow the sport are unhappy about it, particularly with it still being on Prime PPV instead of for free.
This could backfire on PBC’s part, as this event will likely do poorly in terms of buys. Given this new deal with Prime, it’s not good for PBC to have its events implode.
It’s not the best way for Al Haymon’s company to make a favorable impression with Amazon, so they should have done whatever they could to fight a talented fighter who wasn’t recently badly knocked out the way Fundora was in his last fight.
Mendoza destroyed Fundora last year, and that’s the problem with the March 30th fight staying on PPV.
Thurman: An Injury Waiting to Happen
Thurman’s injury wasn’t a surprise to fans, as he’s an old guy at 35, and he’s not stayed active with his career since his clash against Danny Garcia in 2017. Since that fight, Thurman has lost his ambition for the sport entirely, competing just three times in seven years against these three fighters:
Mario Barrios: 2022
Manny Pacquiao: 2019
Josesito Lopez: 2019
It was a crazy gamble on PBC’s part to use Thurman as Tszyu’s opponent because, with his inactivity, the chances were always high that he would break down in training camp and suffer an injury.
Thurman is like an old car with 300,000 miles on the odometer. Taking that car on a long road trip would be too risky, which reflects on PBC for using the old ‘One Time’ rather than a younger, more active fighter who was still hungry.