Fundora hadn’t boxed in almost a year by the time he faced Tim Tszyu, then the unbeaten WBO junior middleweight champion, on short notice in March 2024 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

It was Thurman’s misfortune, coincidentally, that afforded Fundora an opportunity to fight Australia’s Tszyu for his WBO belt and the vacant WBC crown.

While he healed physically and mentally from the torn biceps that cost him a pay-per-view showdown versus Tszyu, Thurman remembers how impressed he was with Fundora’s willingness to accept such a dangerous assignment in his first fight after Mendoza delivered a “Knockout of the Year” candidate against the 6-foot, 5½ inch southpaw in April 2023.

Fundora’s fortitude enabled him to overcome a slow start and beat Tszyu by split decision in a bloody battle. Thurman, who will face Fundora on Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena, applauded Fundora for rebuilding himself into one of boxing’s best junior middleweights following a devastating defeat that could’ve ruined his career.

“It was an opportunity to be world champion,” Thurman told The Ring.

“I mean, if you lose, you lose to a champion on short notice, this and that. But, you know, they locked in and like my coach, Ben Getty, used to say, ‘To get in this ring, you gotta have some balls, you know? And to take a fight like that on short notice, against an undefeated champion, you definitely got some balls. Fundora’s team, they’re just confident, man. They believe in their fighter, they believe in their skills, and were a little timid.

“But ever since then that confidence is coming back. And it can make people dangerous. Most of the greatest fighters in the world were very confident – Roy Jones Jr., Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquaio. That confidence comes from that belief in themselves, the hard work that they’ve put in, and they just know they’re gonna give it their all when they’re in the ring. And I just think Sebastian is one of those type of fighters. He knows he’s coming to put a very tough fight on [against] anybody.”

Fundora led Mendoza comfortably on all three scorecards – 60-54, 60-54 and 59-55 – when Mendoza drilled him with a left hook early in the seventh round. Mendoza caught Fundora with a right-left combination after initially hurting him, which knocked Fundora flat on his back and unable to continue.

Fundora (23-1-1, 15 KOs) is 3-0 since his loss to Mendoza, including a seven-round stoppage of Tszyu (26-3, 18 KOs) in their rematch eight months ago at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The Coachella, California native’s resurgence earned him the No. 2 spot among The Ring’s contenders for a vacant junior middleweight title. DraftKings also lists Fundora as nearly a 4-1 favorite to defeat Thurman (31-1, 23 KOs, 1 NC), a former WBA/WBC welterweight champ from Clearwater, Florida, in a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view main event Amazon’s Prime Video will distribute (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT; $74.99).

“You never know about somebody’s mental [state] and how they’ll recover,” Thurman said. “I heard a little bit of Fundora talking about it. He took somewhere close to a year off and he was probably able to reflect on it, looked back and I think he was winning the fight at the time. So, I mean, that’s where the name ‘One Time’ Keith Thurman comes from – one punch just changes the show. And, I mean, we’ve seen this in boxing. It’s happened on many historic nights, where somebody is not doing good and in those later rounds a mistake is made and they just don’t recover. Sometimes it’s one punch that leads to an onslaught of punches. Sometimes it’s literally one punch.

“So, at the end of the day, you can’t say nothing when somebody loses like that. Like I said, he was winning the fight and that’s what he probably went back and pretty much saw, like, ‘Hey, man, what am I gonna do? I mean, I was doing fine – until I wasn’t.’ That’s boxing, man. That’s life. So, it’s great to see somebody bounce back and return strong. When he had the first match against Tim Tszyu, you could see his timid nature. Tszyu was undefeated, everybody was saying how bad he is, that they didn’t even train for this guy, but Fundora had the ability to sign the contract anyways, even on short notice. That proves a lot in itself, people.”