The Ring’s No. 3 junior middleweight contender was dominating Brian Mendoza in April 2023, until he got caught with a shot he never saw coming in the seventh round. A three-punch combination by Mendoza dropped Fundora flat on his back and left him unable to beat the count at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California,

That knockout remains the lone defeat on the 6-foot-6 WBC champion's resume.

Fundora, 28, isn’t anxious to run things back, though. Not because he’s scared of another devastating defeat, but more so because winning fights has become a rarity for Mendoza.

“If the money’s right,” Fundora told a group of reporters when asked if he would fight Mendoza again. “But he keeps losing his fights.”

Since that upset, their careers have gone in opposite directions.

Fundora (24-1-1, 16 KOs), a southpaw from Coachella, California, has won four straight, three coming via stoppage. In his last appearance, he stopped former WBA and WBC welterweight champ Keith Thurman in the sixth round March 28 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

He is scheduled to defend his title against mandatory challenger Ermal Hadribeaj (23-0-1, 8 KOs) on Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

DAZN will stream the Fundora-Hadribeaj bout globally as a 12-round main event. TNT and truTV will televise the main portion of the card in the United States (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT).

Mendoza, meanwhile, lost three of his last four fights. His last defeat was the most disappointing of them all, according to Fundora.

The 32-year-old Mendoza, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, lost a non-competitive decision to Yoenis Tellez on the Fundora-Thurman undercard.

Had Mendoza (23-5, 17 KOs) won that fight, a sequel might’s made sense. Another defeat means Mendoza must put in some work to earn another shot at the WBC champion.

“I would’ve loved to fight him if he would’ve beat this Cuban guy [Tellez] last time,” Fundora said. “He’s just going backwards. He needs to start winning these fights with these big names again.

“When we fought him, he just knocked out Jeison Rosario, so he was on top of the world, so it made sense back then. But now, you just have to build yourself back up again. A fight with him would be good, but just get back into those rankings again.”