By Norm Frauenheim
The face-off, boxing’s staged ritual, is supposed to be nose-to-nose, eye-to-eye for as long as the fighters can hold a stare without blinking. It’s theater, rehearsed for as long as there has been an opening bell. Sometimes, it’s chaos. But — always — it has to include fighters who can look straight into each other’s pupils.
It’s a ritual not built for Sebastian Fundora’s preternatural dimensions.
Fundora’s 6-foot-6 height makes it impossible. Ermal Hadribeaj would have needed a stepladder to stare into Fundora’s eyes Thursday at the final news conference for their junior-middleweight title fight Saturday at Las Vegas’ Cosmopolitan.
At one level, it was funny, almost a Mutt-and Jeff like skit. On another, it suggested just how problematic Fundora, boxing’s tallest active champion, is for any challenger at an average height for a 154-pound body. The 5-10 Hadribeaj is expected to encounter the same problems the 5-7 1/2 Keith Thurman did in his loss Fundora March 28.
The ever-evolving Fundora is capitalizing on his height, using it to command distance. Thurman tried to get inside, but he could never get close enough to land his power. Frustrated and angry at a stoppage, Thurman would go on to call Fundora “a human obstacle course.’’
Whether the slightly taller Hadribeaj can get any closer is the Albanian’s challenge. The bookmakers say he can’t, hence 14-to-1 odds favoring Fundora to win on a path that he hopes leads to Jaron “Boots” Ennis, who first is expected to fight Josh Kelly in a title unification bout.
“He’s undefeated, so he knows how to fight,’’ Fundora said of Hadribeaj. “That also makes him hungry. But we’re going to break him.’’
Yet, Hadribeaj, a former MMA fighter, remained confident, all the while looking up at Fundora, a fighter he has always admired. He met him three years ago at a boxing convention. Like a fan, he asked Fundora to pose for a
photo with him.
“I tell this story, because I respect him,’’ said Hadribeaj, who then mentioned Vasiliy Lomachenko, the great Ukrainian. “There was a moment with me when I was fighting like Albanian Lomachenko.’’
He’ll need more just a few Loma-like moments Saturday.
ProBoxTV in AZ
Ranked junior-middleweight Joshua Kevin Anton (14-0, 12 KOs), of Palmdale CA, was 152.9 pounds and Freddie Rojas (15-1, 11 KOS), of Las Vegas, was at 151.4 Thursday for a ProBoxTV main event Friday at Rawhide Events Center in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb. First bell is scheduled for 5 p.m. ,AZ time.
