WBO Orders Sebastian Fundora-Terence Crawford 154 lb. Title Fight, Interesting Possibilities Arise

The WBO has ordered their junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) to defend against interim WBO champ Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs). The sanctioning body has given the two sides 30 days to come to an agreement or a purse bid will be ordered.

Crawford, who will turn 37 on September 28, won the vacant interim WBO 154 lb. title this past August 3, along with the WBA junior middleweight title, via unanimous decision versus Israil Madrimov at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old Fundora, meanwhile, beat Tim Tszyu in a bloody split decision scrap for the WBO junior middleweight title back on March 30 as a late-replacement opponent, substituting for an injured Keith Thurman. Fundora would also win the vacant WBC 154 lb. title in that contest.

It’s long been rumored that Fundora was being lined up to face former 3-belt welterweight champ Errol Spence, who was stopped in nine rounds by Crawford back in July of 2023. And, although “Fundora-Spence is imminent” rumors have been leaked to media a few times over the last several months, the bout still appears to be nothing more than rumor and wishful thinking.

Without the likelihood of Spence as an A-side challenger, Fundora’s best money move would probably be to meet Crawford. If the awkward 6-foot-5 southpaw wants to keep his WBO belt, he’ll also have to go with the Crawford fight.

An interesting twist in all of this is that, when all the dust clears, Crawford could conceivably find himself fighting under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) banner once again.

Simply by encouraging the Al Haymon-advised Fundora to hold off on negotiations, the Haymon-run PBC could make a play to win the purse bid and claim the fight for their own Amazon Prime broadcast schedule. The bout could be paired with one of the other rumored PBC headliners for this year, such as Manny Pacquiao-Mario Barrios and David Benavidez vs. TBA.

This is all under the assumption, of course, that Terence Crawford is actually interested in the Fundora fight.

The 4-division world champ from Omaha, Nebraska has been fixated on a big-ticket bout with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, to the exclusion of all other proposed opponents. If there’s even the slightest hint of a possibility that the Canelo fight could be in play, Crawford would likely hold out until next May for a chance at monster money and the undisputed 168 lb. championship.

Although there’s been some public beef between Alvarez and Crawford’s Saudi advisor/bank-roller Turki Alalshikh in recent weeks, the door hasn’t been shut completely on the possibility that Canelo-Crawford could maybe, possibly be a thing at some point.