Prospect Watch: Alberto Fundora

Photo: Jesse Garcia

Coachella, CA has presented the boxing world with some very good fighters, and there is a new young man on the horizon ready to make his mark. Alberto Fundora will fight in “The Big Texas Throwdown” on September 26 in Mesquite, TX.

This will be Fundora’s second professional fight. He made is pro debut at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, CA on July 11. He won that fight against Albert Avina by a TKO in the second round.

Alberto had a very successful amateur career leading up to his turning pro. He began competing at the age of 12.

“I had been boxing before that,” he said. “I’ve been to a lot of national tournaments, such as the National Silver Gloves and the National Junior Olympics in 2011, and the National PALs (Police Athletic League) in 2013. I’ve won a lot of them. I won the Junior Olympics and the National PALs, both of those as a heavyweight.”

But Fundora does not fight as a heavyweight now, he has gone lighter. Currently he fights as a super middleweight. Alberto is only 18 years of age, so we wondered if he feels he will have trouble keeping the weight down as he gets older.

“It’s pretty easy to maintain my weight. I actually went up in weight in the amateurs because I wanted to compete at a higher weight class. But when I turned pro I felt I wanted to cut the weight off. This is where I’d like to stay for awhile.”

Of course it is probably obvious that training for an amateur fight is not the same as when training as a professional. Alberto mentioned some of those differences that stand out to him.

“Well,” he began, “we train a little bit harder now. We do more sparring and road work – more everything. I love sparring, that’s the closest thing you get to a fight. The more sparring you get the more prepared you are for actually fighting.

“We work on slowing down the pace of a fight. As amateurs we have to fight at a faster pace because we get three rounds instead of four or more.

“It’s also a little bit different, because the punches hurt more as pros, obviously. You don’t have those 12 ounce gloves that are designed to take off impact from the punches, whereas the gloves in the pros are designed for more impact.

“The biggest challenge,” he continued, “is watching out for the head butts a little bit more. That’s a big difference.”

Fundora is trained by his father Freddy. Alberto has three brothers and a sister, and his father has been the trainer for each of them who have chosen to step into the ring.

Alberto is managed by Henry Rivalta, Rivalta comes with an impressive resume. A former promoter from 2006 until 2013, Henry was recognized by the WBA as the Latin and NABA Promoter of the Year in 2012.

Now Rivalta can extend his knowledge of boxing to the managerial side and develop and guide young fighters, to help them reach their full potential.

In his spare time Alberto takes it a bit easy. He trains a lot, so he tries to relax more than anything. Keep an eye on this young Mexican/American fighter. One never knows, he might be boxing’s next superstar.