Mendoza is looking to get back in the title picture

To the surprise of no one, New Mexico native Brian Mendoza’s sensational April 2023 knockout of Sebastian Fundora was a topic of conversation on Thursday. The occasion, after all, was a news conference held to promote a Saturday boxing card with Fundora in the main event and Mendoza in the co-main.

Yet, Mendoza wasn’t the one talking about it.

Instead, the Cleveland High graduate went back further — to his November 2022 fight in Minneapolis against former world champion Jeison Rosario, a fight Mendoza said he took on nine days’ notice.

Before the Rosario fight, Mendoza had lost two of his previous four bouts.

“My back was against the wall,” Mendoza said at Thursday’s gathering at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, the site of Saturday’s card. “I was facing obscurity.”

Obscurity avoided.

Mendoza (23-4, 17 knockouts) KO’d Rosario in the fifth round, a victory that led to the bout with Fundora, that stunning victory and the WBC interim super welterweight title that Fundora had held.

But Mendoza’s fortunes turned again. Losses by unanimous decision to Tim Tszyu, in a bid for the the WBO super welterweight title, and to Serhii Bohachuk have dropped the New Mexican out of the title picture.

A victory on Saturday over Cuban prospect Yoenis Tellez (11-1, eight KOs) could change that in a hurry.

“You guys (those in attendance at Thursday’s news conference) saw what I did (against Rosario) when my back was against the wall that time,” Mendoza said. “And I feel like I’m in the same position, just as motivated if not more.”

Mendoza accepted Saturday’s fight on some three weeks’ notice. He’s had only one fight after losing to Bohachuk in March 2024, that a victory last July 4 by fourth-round TKO in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico over journeyman Jesus Antonio Rojas.

Neither ring rust nor short notice is a problem, he said — not after having taken the Rosario fight nine days out, not after having had just one fight the past two years.

“I feel like I’m a short-notice king at this point,” he said. “… They think they’re getting me off the couch, but we’ve been training.

“I’ve been with my new coach, Richard Barrientes, for over a year, just fine-tuning stuff, working and improving.

“… I know where I belong. I belong at the top of this division. This is a definite must-win, and I will win.”

ABOUT THAT KO: It was veteran Keith Thurman — the challenger gunning for Fundora’s WBC super welter title on Saturday — who referenced Mendoza’s knockout of Fundora in 2023.

“Remember that?” Thurman said, addressing Fundora on the dais. “I’ll help you remember (on Saturday).”

Fundora appeared to grimace slightly at the mention of his only professional defeat, but had no comment.

BARE KNUCKLE: Albuquerque’s Bekhzod Usmonov, back in action after he, his wife and young son were involved in a serious car crash late last year — they’re all OK — is scheduled to face Mexico’s Luis Guerrero on a BKB Extreme card Saturday at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

Usmonov fashioned a 2-1 record fighting on BKFC cards, including an impressive win by first-round TKO over former BKFC champion Keith Richardson at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Feb. 8, 2025. But because of inactivity, Usmonov asked out of his BKFC contract and signed with BKB Extreme.

That’s the former BYB, which staged a card at Revel ABQ in January 2025. The organization gave every indication it would like to come back to Albuquerque but also said it would not do so as long as New Mexico Athletic Commission rules did not allow the staging of six-round title fights.

The NMAC is in the process of reviewing, updating and revising its rules.

Guerrero, Usmonov’s opponent, is 1-0 in BKB Extreme competition.