SEBASTIAN Fundora is ready to embrace his burgeoning reputation as the bigger, stronger boxer by bullying opponents. First victim: Tim Tszyu. The Aussie was dispatched in ruthless fashion in their Las Vegas rematch last night, calling for no more after round seven. Fundora is set to continue adopting such a merciless approach.
“I felt like I’m obviously the bigger guy. Everybody’s calling me a bully in the ring, so you know what? Let’s start bullying these guys,” he said, in response to Amazon interviewer Jim Gray’s question about a style change.
“It was good,” Fundora continued, assessing his performance. “The first knockdown in round one, my dad would tell me all week, I think we’ll get him out, I think we’ll get him out. And I think his prediction came true.”
Using the height and reach advantages is a spillover strategy from the first Tszyu battle. Chordale Booker also found Fundora’s size too much to handle in the meantime. It seems the use of a jab at range tactic, rather than leaning in for a brawl, is as much of a revelation to Fundora as anyone else.
“You know what, I woke up this morning and I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, ‘oh wow, I have reach!’ We’ve been working on aggression our whole professional career. Now we’re just adding the length of our arms.
“I’m not growing no more, if anything, I’m going to grow a little heavier, but right now my height is at a stable size. I don’t think I’m growing anymore, I’m not drinking any more milk.”
There was no surprise in the champ’s corner to see Tszyu downed in round one. The pace was set and things were about to get a whole lot rougher for Tim.
“I was not [surprised]. The first time we fought, I came up a lot, so maybe my mentality wasn’t there at the time. We still got the win, but definitely coming into this fight, I was a champion. I’ve been there, I’ve been there with him already and we had to prove that we were better.”
While intellectual Fundora goes off to Harvard to “see if I can graduate with a broken brain”, opponent Tszyu is staring down the barrel at a career that may well be over at world level.
“He’s one tough motherf****r. I tried to give it everything, but I just couldn’t do it and the victory belongs to Sebastian Fundora, the best 154-pounder on the planet right now,” lamented the loser, who refused to blame the cut for his fortunes.
“No, no, no. He was just a better man. He’s very hard to land on. He’s tall as f**k and sometimes I feel like I was shadowboxing with myself, but it is what it is. Congratulations to Fundora and his team. God bless you guys.”
