{"id":498435,"date":"2026-02-23T08:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498435\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T08:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:01:10","slug":"aussies-real-life-rocky-tale-sets-up-world-title-shot-v-fundora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498435\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie\u2019s \u2018real life Rocky tale\u2019 sets up world title shot v Fundora"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viviana Ruiz doesn\u2019t have to search hard for good quality sparring as she prepares to fight the 175cm tall Gabriela Fundora for the undisputed flyweight world title.<\/p>\n

She just needs to look across the room to her coach and partner, Ben Savva.<\/p>\n

A former world rated welterweight, Savva has pulled the gloves back on again to help Ruiz (10-2) turn a \u201cone in a million\u201d dream into reality against Fundora.<\/p>\n

Fundora, by the way, is the younger sister of \u2018The Towering Inferno\u2019 Sebastian Fundora, who shattered the hopes of Aussie boxing fans with back-to-back world title wins over Tim Tszyu in 2024 and \u201925<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After being unable to find many female sparring partners who could emulate Gabriela\u2019s height and southpaw stance, she turned to Savva, who retired in 2019 with an 11-2 record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been coaching for nearly 10 years, and she\u2019s always wanted to batter me, but I\u2019ve never let her,\u201d Savva told Code Sports. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis camp was the right camp to finally spar each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do a very good Fundora impression.\u201d <\/p>\n

After picking up boxing at the age of 32, Ruiz\u2019s story is a real life Rocky tale.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Savva wasn\u2019t able to go with her, so Ruiz\u2019s mum cornered her,<\/a> with the Ben offering insights via text message while watching live streams.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time in the making,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been chasing this fight since Fundora became the undisputed champion. That\u2019s been the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then we\u2019ve had a lot of changes of dates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s mixed feelings, because it becomes a reality, but you still get nervous \u2013 there\u2019s a tickle in your belly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A win would see Ruiz join an impressive list of Aussie female world champions, including Cherneka Johnson<\/a>, Kaye Scott and Desley Robinson.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 2-0 to the Fundoras, but we\u2019ll get one back for Australia,\u201d Savva said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTen 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got this far, why can\u2019t we go all the way and get it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Buster Douglas against Mike Tyson. No one gives us a chance, we\u2019re not naive; we know we\u2019re being written off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already overcome huge odds, we can prove dreams can come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe we can complete the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Viviana Ruiz doesn\u2019t have to search hard for good quality sparring as she prepares to fight the 175cm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[2095,3916,64,63,689,250842,250840,802,28350,485,32976,250828,250835,250841,250830,16200,250837,250836,8199,673,2041,2067,677,250839,16217,250831,2784,11298,85,5942,165757,250832,250829,250833,2614,250838,2836,250834,54814],"class_list":["post-498435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-america","tag-anaheim","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-back-to-back-world-title","tag-ben-savva","tag-boxing","tag-brendan-bradford","tag-california","tag-colombia","tag-desley-robinson","tag-female-world-champions","tag-flyweight-title","tag-flyweight-world-title","tag-honda-motor-company","tag-kaye-scott","tag-ltd-centre","tag-mike-tyson","tag-new-south-wales","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-offering-insights","tag-real-life","tag-right-camp","tag-sebastian-fundora","tag-south-america","tag-sports","tag-tim-tszyu","tag-tweed-heads","tag-undisputed-flyweight-world","tag-undisputed-world-champion","tag-undisputed-world-title","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-viviana-ruiz","tag-world-title","tag-world-title-ambitions","tag-world-title-fight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}