Viviana Ruiz doesn’t have to search hard for good quality sparring as she prepares to fight the 175cm tall Gabriela Fundora for the undisputed flyweight world title.

She just needs to look across the room to her coach and partner, Ben Savva.

A former world rated welterweight, Savva has pulled the gloves back on again to help Ruiz (10-2) turn a “one in a million” dream into reality against Fundora.

Fundora, by the way, is the younger sister of ‘The Towering Inferno’ Sebastian Fundora, who shattered the hopes of Aussie boxing fans with back-to-back world title wins over Tim Tszyu in 2024 and ’25.

Ruiz will give up nearly 20cm in height to Fundora when they step in the ring on March 14 (March 15 in Australia) at the Honda Centre in Anaheim, California.

After being unable to find many female sparring partners who could emulate Gabriela’s height and southpaw stance, she turned to Savva, who retired in 2019 with an 11-2 record.

“I’ve been coaching for nearly 10 years, and she’s always wanted to batter me, but I’ve never let her,” Savva told Code Sports.

“This camp was the right camp to finally spar each other.

“I do a very good Fundora impression.”

After picking up boxing at the age of 32, Ruiz’s story is a real life Rocky tale.

At one point, when she was unable to get any fights in Australia, Ruiz returned to her home in Colombia with what little money she could scrape together, and had four fights and four wins in three months.

Savva wasn’t able to go with her, so Ruiz’s mum cornered her, with the Ben offering insights via text message while watching live streams.

Then a ruptured Achilles nearly ended her world title ambitions in 2022, before she won the interim WBA flyweight title last year and became Fundora’s mandatory challenger.

“It’s been a long time in the making,” she told Code Sports ahead of her last week of training at her Tweed Heads base in Australia before she relocates to Anaheim next Monday.

“We’ve been chasing this fight since Fundora became the undisputed champion. That’s been the goal.

“But then we’ve had a lot of changes of dates.

“There’s mixed feelings, because it becomes a reality, but you still get nervous – there’s a tickle in your belly.”

A win would see Ruiz join an impressive list of Aussie female world champions, including Cherneka Johnson, Kaye Scott and Desley Robinson.

She would also become the first Colombian born-and-raised fighter to become undisputed world champion, while getting some measure of revenge on the Fundora family on behalf of her adopted country.

“It’s 2-0 to the Fundoras, but we’ll get one back for Australia,” Savva said.

“Ten years ago, when Viviana started boxing at 32 years old, you would have got a million to one odds on her fighting for an undisputed world title.

“We’ve got this far, why can’t we go all the way and get it done.

“This is Buster Douglas against Mike Tyson. No one gives us a chance, we’re not naive; we know we’re being written off.

“We’ve already overcome huge odds, we can prove dreams can come true.

“We believe we can complete the journey.”