Jim Lampley Previews Tszyu-Fundora For PPV.com

“And to top all that off, the stakes have risen now that one governing body has mandated that the winner must, within five days after March 30, begin negotiations with pound for pound superstar Terence Crawford for a unified title defense at 154 pounds.  The idea of that is to set up Crawford-Tszyu, in the current landscape a super fight.  Crawford-Fundora was not on anyone’s radar, but it’s not out of the question now.  Fundora might be a freaky matchup for the Australian champion Tszyu.

“On the other hand, Fundora is entering off a 357-day layoff following a shocking knockout loss to Brian Mendoza, who, during the interim, lost a unanimous decision to Tszyu.  Can Fundora shake off the hangover of being devastated by Mendoza?  Can Tszyu make the style and mentality adjustments necessary to turn his preparation for Thurman into productive preparation for Fundora?

“Does the monetary and competitive attraction of a match with Terence Crawford amp up the intensity of the fight?  Who benefits from the style anomaly of a near-six and 1/2 foot 154-pound high volume body puncher?  These and other possibly emergent questions bring new mystery to what had previously appeared to be a predictable outcome:  a paycheck for the faded Thurman and another credential for the pound-for-pound aspirant, Tszyu.

“The two combatants, Fundora and Tszyu, are not strangers.  They sat with each other during a Showtlme telecast of Jermell Charlo’s rematch with Brian Castano in May 2022.  Now, under different circumstances, they will go to war in what figures, on paper, to be a high-contact fight.

“Boxing is fairly abundantly littered with reversals in these circumstances.  Andy Ruiz was a late substitute in a heavyweight matchup with Anthony Joshua and knocked the champion out.  Irish fans are still lamenting Steve Cruz vs Barry McGuigan.  Rolando Navarrete stepped in late for Bazooka Limon and stopped heavily favored Cornelius Boza-Edwards.   Manny Pacquiao has been on both sides of the equation.  He was a late substitute opponent who knocked out defending champion Lehlo Ledwaba and 20 years later, lost a unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugas, who stepped in late for injured Errol Spence.  It happens, and Tszyu must be conscious of that.

“But given the new mandate that the winner should get a Crawford fight, the style and incentive edges still seem to lie with Tszyu, so it is still his fight to win.  He just shouldn’t be shocked if it turns out to be a tougher matchup than Keith Thurman would have been.”