Last Saturday night, 5’ 9” super flyweight Gabriela “Sweet Poison” Fundora made her successful professional boxing debut with an exciting unanimous four-round decision over fellow Californian southpaw Jazmin Valverde Medina.
Fighting on the undercard of Brandon Figueroa’s Showtime-televised WBC World and WBA Super World Super Bantamweight Championship-winning KO 7 over former world champion Luis Nery at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, the 19-year-old Fundora (1-0) dropped Medina in round two and cruised to an impressive near-shutout victory (scores: 40-35, 39-36 and 40-35).
The scores, however, are not indicative of the excitement the two women generated in an exciting punch-out. The heavy underdog Medina came to fight.
“I felt great!” said Fundora. “I’m glad I was able to showcase my talent on such a great platform on Showtime. I delivered a body shot and followed it up with a right hook that dropped her in the second round and every round after that, we mixed up the punches in bunches.”
A former accomplished amateur, Fundora says she’s relieved to have her first professional fight completed successfully. “We have been preparing for our debut for a while and now that we were able to get our first fight in the books,” she admitted. “We will keep building up from there. We have a great promoter who wants to keep us busy, so we will be starting camp Monday in preparation for his confirmation of our next date.”
Fundora is the daughter in a fighting family that also includes undefeated WBC #5-rated super welterweight contender Sebastian “Towering Inferno” Fundora and her father/trainer Freddy Fundora. “I really liked the performance of both fighters,” said the elder Fundora, “from the very first round they both came in to win by throwing lots of punches with impressive speed. They showed what women’s boxing should look like. She (Gabriela) is a great student of the sport and all of her hard work and dedication paid off.”
“My sister did exactly what we train in camp to do and she showcased her skills with exciting strength!” added proud brother Sebastian.
Promoter Sampson Lewkowicz says he’s happy with Lady Fundora’s performance and will be looking to keep her very busy throughout the rest of the year.
“She is special,” said Lewkowicz, who is also known for discovering previously unknown talents including superstars Sergio Martinez, Javier Fortuna, her popular brother Sebastian, super middleweight star David Benavidez, WBA Interim Featherweight champ Eduardo “Zurdito” Ramirez, former unified king Jeison “Banana” Rosario, undefeated Michel Rivera, KO punching South American Amilcar Vidal, and the all-time-great Manny Pacquiao. “I will keep Gabriela fighting as much as possible in 2021, to get her experience for a championship fight. It won’t take long before she’s prepared to face anyone in the world. She is a special fighter
