Fundora stops Hadribeaj in final second, keeps undisputed title hopes alive

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Sebastian Fundora kept his pursuit of an undisputed championship on track with a second to spare.

Fundora stopped Ermal Hadribeaj with a left hand at 2:59 of the 12th round Saturday night at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas to retain his WBC super welterweight title.

Fundora (25-1-1, 17 KOs) had his fourth successful title defense and handed Hadribeaj (23-1-1) his first professional loss.

“It was an interesting fight,” Fundora said. “I had to go back and fight on the inside and show everyone again that I can still do that. It was dramatic to knock him out at the last second. But we’ll go back to the gym and fix some things.”

Fundora entered the bout looking toward a chance to unify the 154-pound division, but first had to get past a stubborn mandatory challenger.

Hadribeaj attacked the body early, crouching beneath Fundora’s punches and landing looping shots over the top. Fundora caught him in the second round, and Hadribeaj increasingly turned to holding to disrupt the champion’s offense.

Hadribeaj lost points for holding in the third and 11th rounds. Fundora found room for uppercuts inside and applied pressure through the middle rounds before delivering the decisive left in the final second.

“I told the ref in the fourth round that I was hurting him,” Fundora said. “I kept landing body shots and was looking for that special shot to get him out of there.

“I was hitting him in the rib cage the whole time with the left hand and when I went up the middle, I heard the noise that he made. So I just kept touching that and knew it would break him.”

Fundora, 28, has won five straight since Brian Mendoza knocked him out in April 2023. The 6-foot-5 southpaw from Coachella, California, captured the WBC and WBO titles against Tim Tszyu in March 2024, then stopped Chordale Booker, Tszyu and Keith Thurman in successive defenses.

“I want to go for undisputed in this division,” Fundora said. “We’ll break either Jaron Ennis or Josh Kelly down. Just like the last guy and the guy before that. We’ll keep breaking them down.”

Hadribeaj, an Albanian fighter based in Miami, earned his title opportunity with a victory over previously unbeaten Bakary Samake earlier this year.

In the co-main event, Armando Resendiz (17-3) outlasted Australia’s Koen Mazoudier (16-5-1) by unanimous decision in a 10-round super middleweight bout. The judges scored it 98-92, 97-93 and 97-93.

Resendiz landed punishing left hands through the middle rounds, but Mazoudier kept trading inside and rallied late. Resendiz finished strongly, sending Mazoudier stumbling backward in the final minute.

“We pulled this off because we had great preparation,” Resendiz said. “This was the kind of fight that I expected. I had to change my game plan and box and move a little bit because this was a very tough fight.”

Marco Romero (16-0, 14 KOs) stopped Matias Ferreira (8-4) with a crushing right hand at 1:54 of the first round in their scheduled eight-round super middleweight bout.

“He was too slow,” Romero said. “His speed and experience didn’t matter.”

Jaime Osuna (12-0) remained unbeaten with a majority decision over Cristian Cangelosi (13-1-1) in an eight-round middleweight bout.

“It was a fight that took everything I had from beginning to end,” Osuna said.

AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing