Gabriela Fundora Halts Gabriela Alaniz In 7th Round To Become RING/Undisputed Flyweight Champion

Gabriela Fundora vowed to turn history into her story.

The unbeaten 22-year-old became the sport’s youngest undisputed champion with a seventh-round knockout of Gabriela Alaniz. A pair of knockdowns produced the stoppage at 1:40 of round seven Saturday at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

With the win, Fundora (16-0, 7 knockouts)—who held the IBF belt—won The Ring championship and WBC, WBA and WBO titles. She is the first-ever undisputed flyweight champion and the youngest woman among any weight class.

Fundora and her team not only vowed to make history but even properly dressed for the occasion.

“This fight is dedicated to Oscar,” Fundora told DAZN’s Chris Mannix. “I wore gold in his honor.”

The reference was to Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions co-promotes Fundora along with Sampson Lewkowicz.

Fundora quickly made her way inside but still put her massive six-inch height and reach to good use. The jab was enough to keep Alaniz outside of effective punching range. Fundora slipped a lot of the incoming and landed with right hooks and straight left hands from the southpaw stance.

Alaniz made a fight of it in the third and fourth round.

The visiting Argentinean connected with a left hook to briefly stun Fundora in the third. Fundora stormed back in the fourth and landed body shots. They paved the way for a right hook which cracked Alaniz upstairs. Alaniz responded with a left hook which caused Fundora’s back leg to buckle, though she survived the sequence.

Fundora regained control in the middle rounds. Her jab was once again key but she also didn’t pardon the body. Alaniz did her best to push past her opponent’s power and also plowed forward with one-two combinations.

That worked until it didn’t.

Fundora is among the few women in the sport who always strives to close the show. She managed just that on the strength of her straight left hand. Alaniz protested the first knockdown call in the seventh, insisting that Fundora stepped on her left foot.

There was no disputing the second knockdown. Alaniz hit the deck hard from another left hand. The contest was brought to a halt immediately thereafter.

“We trained for this,” insisted Fundora. “I told my dad [Freddy Fundora, Gabriela’s head trainer] this is the punch I wanted to get the knockout with. And it was.”

The straight lefts were among the 112 punches she landed out of 462 thrown (24.2 percent).

Alaniz (15-2, 6 KOs) was 97-of-359 (27 percent) in defeat, the second in her last three fights. Her previous loss came under dubious circumstances, a questionable majority decision to Marlen Esparza last July 8 in San Antonio, Texas. Alaniz was the unbeaten WBO titlist at the time but the questionable call ended her reign.

An immediate rematch was ordered by the WBO. Alaniz seized the moment and won a majority decision to claim The Ring, WBC, WBA and WBO belts.

They all now belong to Fundora.

“I think every fighter should emulate her heart and relentlessness,” De La Hoya said of his newest undisputed champion. “She is a superstar in the making.”

The win came in the same city where Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs), Gabriela’s older brother, also became a champ in 2024. Sebastian defeated unbeaten Tim Tszyu to win the WBC/WBO 154-pound titles on March 30 at T-Mobile Arena.

As is always the case when they fight, one sibling accompanies the other into the ring. Sebastian proudly held Gabriela’s IBF title during the ring walk. The family now goes home with a lot more hardware.

Fundora has now won four title fights in a span of just 54 weeks. All but one have ended in knockout, including her IBF title-lifting fifth-round stoppage of Arely Mucino last Oct. 21. Fundora then stopped unbeaten Christina Cruz in the tenth and final round on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. She went all ten rounds in a decision win over Daniela Asenjo on Aug. 10 at nearby Michelob ULTRA Arena.

The sport’s newest undisputed queen was determined to not allow this one to go to the judges.

“Listen to how lit the crowd was,” Fundora pointed out. “That explains it all. I think everyone enjoys the knockout. I wouldn’t watch women’s boxing if there weren’t any knockouts. That’s what they deserved today.”

Fundora deserves all the accolades that come her way during year-end awards season. For now, she can take comfort knowing her name is forever etched in the record books. There can only be one “first”—she is just that for the flyweight division, and did so in a manner that brings more fans to the sport.

UNDERCARD RESULTS

Bektemir Melikuziev rode a second half surge to a split decision win over David Stevens.

Scores were all over the place in their 12-round super middleweight contest. Stevens (14-2, 10 KOs) won 116-112 on the card of Chris Migliore. It was overruled by judges Dave “Not Carl” Moretti (118-110) and Zachary Young (117-111) for Melikuziev (15-1, 10 KOs).

There was confusion over the weight limit for the fight. It was marketed as a WBA super middleweight eliminator. However, Melikuziev’s team insisted their contracted called for a 170-pound limit.

Nevertheless, it’s the eighth straight win for Melikuziev. His lone defeat was a June 2021, one-punch third-round knockout at the hands of Gabriel Rosado. Melikuziev avenged his lone career defeat in a Sept. 2022 virtual shutout win.

Darius Fulghum (13-0, 11 KOs) resumed his knockout ways with a third-round stoppage of Christopher Pearson (17-5-1, 12 KOs).

The fight was a mismatch on paper, but an encouraging sign that Fulghum went straight on the attack. Pearson is a shell of his former self and came merely to survive. He covered up on the ropes as Fulghum went on the attack. Referee Michael Ortega saw enough and stopped the fight at 1:00 of the third round.

Rookie welterweight Joel Iriarte (5-0, 5 KOs) remained perfect with a first-round knockout of Xavier Madrid (5-6, 2 KOs) in their DAZN opener. The 21-year-old from Bakersfield, California turned pro in March. So far, he has ended every fight within two rounds.

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