Esparza vs Fundora reported for Jan. 6, undisputed flyweight championship
Marlen Esparza and Gabriela Fundora will fight for undisputed at flyweight in January.
Marlen Esparza and Gabriela Fundora will reportedly meet for the undisputed flyweight championship on Saturday, Jan. 6, according to a report at ESPN.com.
Esparza, 34, holds the WBC, WBA, and WBO titles, while the 21-year-old Fundora recently won the IBF belt.
The fight would be featured on the undercard of Vergil Ortiz Jr’s return and move to the 154 lb division in Las Vegas.
Esparza (14-1, 1 KO) beat Ibeth Zamora for the WBC belt in June 2021, added the WBA title with a win over Naoko Fujioka in Apr. 2022, and picked up the WBO belt by beating Gabriela Alaniz this past July.
The Alaniz fight especially caused a bit of a stir, with a feeling that the two cards that went Esparza’s way — scores of 97-93 and 99-91 — were too wide. The third card was even, 95-95. The WBO did vote to order an immediate rematch, but sanctioning bodies are pretty lenient when an alternative is an undisputed fight.
Fundora (12-0, 5 KO) had a sensational breakout performance in her title win over Arely Mucino on Oct. 21, scoring a fifth round stoppage.
The physical matchup will be interesting, but it will always be interesting with Fundora, a 5’9” southpaw flyweight. Esparza is listed at 5’3”.