Fundora dominates, stops Booker in 4th to retain unified 154 title
Junior middleweight Jesus Ramos batters Schramm in 7th-round TKO; middleweight Elijah Garcia scores controversial split decision vs. Gausha
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Sebastian Fundora, back in action after nearly year out of the ring, nonetheless looked sharp and powerful as he dominated and knocked out Chordale Booker in the fourth round to retain the WBC and WBO junior middleweight titles on Saturday night at Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Headlining a PBC on Prime Video tripleheader, Fundora made the first defense of his unified 154-pound crown 51 weeks after scoring a blood-soaked split decision against Tim Tszyu to win the WBO belt and the vacant WBC title. Fundora had moved up from the undercard on 12 days’ notice to replace injured Keith Thurman, Tszyu’s original opponent.
Fundora was anxious to fight again but a planned bout with former unified welterweight titlist Errol Spence Jr. had several dates come and go. Finally, his team and PBC booked him against Booker.
“I’ve felt ready this whole time since my last fight,” Fundora said. “I've been working very, very hard this past year. We went back to camp back in May last year. I know there was a misunderstanding of me having a broken nose (against Tszyu) but we were working the whole time. Now I've successfully defended my two titles and the sky’s the limit.”