Real or not: Fundora undisputed, Boots will unify, and Ryan will solve Mayer in rematch
After a failed attempt to face Errol Spence Jr. in 2024, Sebastian Fundora is back in the ring to defends his WBC and WBO junior middleweight titles against Chordale Booker Saturday night in Las Vegas, in what is perceived as a tune-fight for the champ. But will Fundora be able to get the other champions and fully unified the 154-pound division by the end of 2026?
More than two years since the fight was announced, Chris Eubank Jr. and Connor Benn will finally meet in London in April. The nontitle middleweight fight was postponed in October 2022 when Benn tested positive for two banned substances. The Eubank-Benn rivalry goes back to the 1990s, when their fathers fought twice in the same middleweight division. Can Benn win bragging rights and even stop Eubank?
On March 29 in Las Vegas, Mikaela Mayer defends the WBO welterweight belt against Sandy Ryan in a rematch of their 2023 bout in which Mayer took away the title by majority decision. Can Ryan get her revenge?
After competing four times in 2024, heavyweight Richard Torrez, a silver medalist for the U.S. in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, returns to the ring on April 5 for his first fight this year to face his most notable opponent yet. Torrez, who has stopped 11 of his 12 opponents to date (he also has a DQ win over Joey Dawejko in December), faces Guido Vianello in Las Vegas in his first fight headlining a boxing card. Can Torrez show that he’s already be the best current American big man?
One week later, on April 12, Jaron Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis fight to unify two welterweight titles in a battle between undefeated fighters. Ennis is a -700 favorite per ESPN BET, and he should be victorious if he fights to his potential.
Earlier this month, former welterweight champion Keith Thurman returned to the ring for the first time since 2022 to defeat Brock Jarvis in Australia by third-round TKO. While the performance was impressive, Jarvis is far from an elite fighter in the 154-pound division. But can this win catapult Thurman to the top again and earn him an opportunity to win another world title?
Mike Coppinger, Timothy Bardley Jr., Nick Parkinson and Andreas Hale answer these questions and more, trying to separate what’s real and what’s not.
Real or not: Sebastian Fundora will become undisputed junior lightweight champion in 2026
Not real. Fundora should breeze past Chordale Booker on Saturday in his first defense of his WBC and WBO titles, in what amounts to a stay-busy fight. Fundora waited around for Errol Spence Jr., a high-profile fight that was first planned for October 2024 but then postponed repeatedly until it was finally scrapped.
Fundora scored a major upset when he outpointed Tim Tszyu in a brutal and bloody fight Tszyu accepted on 11 days’ notice last March. Unfortunately, Fundora hasn’t fought since that fight and hasn’t been able to build on the momentum.
The real challenge here for Fundora, who is a towering 6-foot-5 1/2 at 154 pounds, will be activity. The other two titleholders at junior middleweight are Bakhram Murtazaliev (IBF) and Terence Crawford (WBA).
Crawford is headed to 168 pounds and a September fight with Canelo Alvarez and will end up relinquishing his title at 154 pounds. The WBA could always reinstate Jermell Charlo, its champion in recess, as full champion. Yoenis Tellez, like Charlo and Fundora, is with PBC and is the WBA interim champion.
So if Fundora is to become undisputed champion next year, he could ostensibly fight Murtazliev this summer followed by a showdown before the end of 2026 against Tellez or Charlo to fully unify. But it’s incredibly hard to imagine two more unification fights coming together for Fundora in 2026. — Coppinger
Real or not: Sandy Ryan will avenge her close defeat to Mikaela Mayer in the rematch
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Mikaela Mayer gets majority-decision win to become new WBO champ
Mikaela Mayer wins the main event via majority decision to upset Sandy Ryan and become the new women’s WBO welterweight champion.
Real. Ryan lost to Mayer last September, but the victory was overshadowed when someone threw red paint at Ryan hours earlier as she left her hotel in New York to travel to Madison Square Garden for the fight. Ryan accused someone from Mayer’s team of carrying out the attack, but Mayer denied the accusation. The incident undoubtedly unsettled Ryan in the final hours before the welterweight title fight, and you wonder if it impacted her performance. Mayer won a majority decision with scorecards of 97-93, 96-94 and 95-95.
If Ryan can execute her game plan in the rematch and utilize her intensity, she can regain the WBO belt and get sweet revenge.
“This time, I will be fully prepared for whatever comes my way,” Ryan told ESPN in January. “What happened before the fight last time meant I did fight in anger, and it clearly affected my performance. The world will see a focused, determined and talented fighter in the shape of her life.” — Parkinson
Real or not: Conor Benn will KO Chris Eubank Jr.
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Chris Eubank Jr. slaps Conor Benn with an egg during face-off
Chris Eubank Jr. hits Conor Benn during their face-off ahead of their fight in April.
Not real. Eubank might not be in totally convincing form, but he has size and experience on his side, which should mean he is the one delivering a KO finish, not Benn.
Benn is jumping up two weight classes to make this fight more than two years after it was cancelled in October 2022 due to Benn testing positive for a banned substance. Since then, Benn has been restricted to two appearances in three years, both decision wins against opponents outside of the welterweight top 15.
While Eubank suffered a serious setback when former world champion Liam Smith stopped him in four rounds in January 2023, he looked spiteful in the rematch when he halted Smith in Round 10 in September of that year. Smith, a former junior middleweight world champion, went into the rematch on the back of four successive stoppage wins and was completely dominated by Eubank, who threw a staggering 448 punches more than Smith, according to CompuBox. Eubank went on to register a seventh-round stoppage win over Kamil Szeremeta in October.
Benn will hope to replicate Smith’s feat in the first fight, but he has not beaten anyone of Eubank’s caliber. Benn is expected to make a furious start, and Eubank knows this, so Eubank would have to be very careless to lose this grudge fight by knockout. What is more likely is that Eubank withstands an early storm and uses his superior strength to stop Benn in the second half of the fight. — Parkinson
Real or not: Keith Thurman will win a title at junior middleweight
Not real. Yes, Thurman looked like the “One Time” of old against Brock Jarvis to end a three-year hiatus. But … it was Brock Jarvis, who is far from an elite junior middleweight. At 36, Thurman’s window of being an elite boxer appears to have closed as his résumé is littered with more fighters who have retired (Manny Pacquiao, Shawn Porter, Robert Guerrero, Josesito Lopez) than actively competing. He may have only one loss in his career, but he is in a division full of young, hungry fighters salivating to add his name to their résumés.
It’s hard to see Thurman beating Vergil Ortiz Jr., Israil Madrimov or Bakhram Murtazaliev given his recent inactivity. Even with his flaws, unified champion Sebastian Fundora, who is five inches taller and has an 11-inch reach advantage, would be a physical nightmare for Thurman to deal with. I’d like to see how he deals with someone like former champion Tim Tszyu or young contender Xander Zayas before catapulting him into the realm of legitimate title contenders. Thurman still has a lot to prove to reclaim the glory of his run from 2015-2017, when he reigned as a welterweight titleholder, and time simply isn’t on his side. — Hale
Real or not: Richard Torrez Jr. is the best current American heavyweight
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Richard Torrez Jr. wins by DQ after Joey Dawejko’s mouthpiece falls out
Richard Torrez Jr. claims victory after Joey Dawejko’s mouthpiece excessively falls out, forcing a disqualification.
Real. I can’t help but feel a bit of pride when I see an American heavyweight fighter with potential coming up through the ranks. That’s why I’m excited about Torrez. He’s an Olympic silver medalist for good reasons. He is a southpaw like unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, relatively short for the division at 6-foot-2 with excellent hand and foot speed. He doesn’t possess the same technical abilities as Usyk, but Torrez is deceptively clever with his setups and attacks, catching his opposition off guard. He pushes a frantic fighting pace, swarming his competition, staying close enough to the fire without getting burned.
Torrez’s stamina seems elite at this level of competition, but we will get a definitive answer once his competition improves. However, his combination punching, overall strength, dedication and desire to win are top-notch, as he has 11 KO wins in his 12 pro fights. Sure, he’s been fighting some journeymen, but who doesn’t at this stage in his career? He is scheduled to face his toughest test to date, Italy’s own 6-foot-6 Guido Vianello on April 5, in a fight that should provide a barometer of where Torrez is trending. I think he is the best heavyweight here in America at the current moment. Another contender for best American heavyweight, Jared Anderson, who I believe is the most skilled, seems to have trouble with motivation to reach the very top of the heavyweight division. — Bradley
Real or not: Jaron Ennis will defeat Eimantas Stanionis to unify two welterweight titles
Real. Ennis has this strange ebb and flow where one day he looks like a future hall of famer and then he turns in a performance that leaves us wondering if we’ve been hoodwinked into believing in his potential. Ennis’ last outing against Karen Chukhadzhian in November certainly falls into the latter category as he underwhelmed in the third defense of his IBF welterweight title. But I think this inconsistency is more about Ennis fighting to the level of his competition than being overhyped, and Stanionis is going to find out the hard way why Ennis is a future top-five pound-for-pound fighter.
The Philadelphia switch hitter is too talented and still has a lot to prove. He knows that everyone is watching, and “Boots” tends to turn it up when the spotlight is shining on him. He’s a little too much of everything for Stanionis to deal with for 12 rounds, and Ennis appears incentivized to put on a dominant performance.
Inactivity could be a burden in this fight for Stanionis. Since 2020, Stanionis has fought six times while Ennis has competed in 10 fights. It’s a great opportunity for Ennis, as he’s more than capable of turning in a brilliant performance to unify the titles. — Hale
