PBC announced yesterday that WBC super welterweight champion Sebastian Fundora will defend his title against mandatory challenger Ermal Hadribeaj atop an October 17th TNT\/DAZN tripleheader at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Fundora (24-1-1, 16 KO), sticking to his customary two-fight-per-year schedule, sees action for the first time since running over Keith Thurman this past March<\/a>. A potential undisputed showdown with either Jaron Ennis or Josh Kelly loom large for next year, but he\u2019ll first have to get past Miami-based Albanian Hadribeaj (23-0-1, 8 KO), who upset fellow unbeaten Bakary Samake in a ProBox-aired final eliminator in May.<\/p>\n He\u2019s solid enough as far as mandatory challengers go, and with most of the rest of the division top 15 reeling from recent losses, he\u2019s arguably one of the better opponents available for Fundora while fellow titlists Ennis and Kelly sort things out amongst themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cCamp is going great! October 17 is going to be an exciting night for boxing fans, Sebastian \u2018The Towering Inferno\u2019 Fundora will be taking over Las Vegas once again,\u201d said Fundora.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m working hard to be at my best and become world champion on October 17,\u201d said Hadribeaj. \u201cThis is what I\u2019ve worked for my entire career, and I\u2019m going to be prepared for the fight Fundora is gonna bring. If he takes me lightly, he\u2019s gonna be in for a big surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n In the middle slot goes WBA featherweight champ Brandon Figueroa (27-2-1, 20 KO), who blew away Nick Ball to claim the belt in one of the most comedically proportioned matchups you\u2019ll ever see<\/a>. Though he\u2019s got his sights set<\/a> on a future date with Naoya Inoue, his first defense comes against one of \u201cThe Monster\u2019s\u201d more seasoned countrymen: Tomoki Kameda (42-5, 23 KO). The former bantamweight champ is coming off a tight split decision loss to IBF titlist Angelo Leo<\/a> and is the sort of pocket slugger that could easily produce fireworks with Figueroa.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m feeling strong, sharp and ready to defend my title,\u201d said Figueroa. \u201cWe\u2019ve been pushing hard this camp and making sure I\u2019m prepared for anything. Fans know I always come to fight, so expect a show October 17 in Las Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m coming to take advantage of this opportunity on October 17 and leave Las Vegas world champion once again,\u201d said Kameda. \u201cBrandon Figueroa is a great champion and I know that when the bell rings, we\u2019re going to give the fans a fight they\u2019ll remember.\u201d<\/p>\n The opener pits Jermall Charlo (34-0, 23 KO) against super welterweight Koen Mazoudier (16-4-1, 6 KO) in a rescheduled showdown originally set for July in Australia before Charlo failed to get a visa. It was a stupid matchup when they first proposed it and it\u2019s even dumber now considering that Mazoudier being a New South Wales boy fighting in front of local fans was literally the only thing it had going for it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting on this moment and I\u2019m ready to get back in there and remind everybody who Jermall Charlo is,\u201d said Charlo. \u201cI was ready to fight in July, and when that didn\u2019t happen, I went right back to the gym and kept working. I know my fans have been waiting to see me and I\u2019m gonna step into the ring hungry, focused and with a lot to prove. Mazoudier is coming to make a name for himself, but he\u2019s standing in the way of where I\u2019m trying to go. October 17, I\u2019m coming to make a statement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know I\u2019m the underdog and I don\u2019t care,\u201d said Mazoudier. \u201cI\u2019m coming to take down a legend, I\u2019m not just going there for a payday\u2026I\u2019m going there to win. I\u2019ve never taken a backward step in my life, and I\u2019m sure as hell not starting on October 17. I\u2019m coming to take Charlo down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PBC announced yesterday that WBC super welterweight champion Sebastian Fundora will defend his title against mandatory challenger Ermal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-875945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}