WBO president Paco Valcarcel confirmed last night that his organization will order WBC/WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora to defend against the WBO’s mandatory Terence Crawford next week. Fundora captured the WBO’s belt last Saturday night with his upset 12-round split decision win over champion Tim Tszyu at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The WBO only has control over their belt, so they can’t do anything if Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) vacates their title and chooses to defend his newly won WBC 154-lb strap against Errol Spence Jr. or the WBC’s mandatory Serhii Bohachuk next.
If the WBO goes ahead with its plans to order the Fundora-Crawford fight next week, as President Valcarcel states, Fundora will undoubtedly vacate the belt so that he can go after a better-paying fight against Spence.
Despite his loss to Crawford last July, Spence is viewed as a bigger star than him and can sell out the 90,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Dallas. This move would leave Crawford stuck with either fighting for the vacant WBO 154-lb title against Josh Kelly or giving up on the idea of fighting for the strap.
Predictably, Crawford will choose not to fight for the WBO belt because his likely sole reason for wanting to fight for the belt in the first place was the huge payday he would have gotten fighting Tszyu, a PPV draw in Australia.
Crawford isn’t in a position to force a title shot against Fundora, and it doesn’t matter that the WBO will order the fight. That’s an empty gesture that will lead to the belt being vacated by Fundora, leaving Crawford with a non-desirable fight against Josh Kelly, a fighter who isn’t even popular in his own country.
Fundora’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz has already revealed the next fight on the plate for his fighter by saying last night that former unified welterweight champion Spence.
Fundora can make excellent money to fight Spence, and depending on how well he prepares for the match, it’s a winnable one for the 6’5″ ‘Towering Inferno.’
