Chordale Booker has no intention of letting his world title defeat become the defining moment of his career.
The American came up short against Sebastian Fundora in a 2025 world title challenge at 154lbs, but the experience appears to have strengthened rather than diminished his belief that he belongs at the highest level. Now campaigning at middleweight with a record of 25-2 (13 KOs), Booker is looking towards the names that can take him back into championship contention, and he is making it clear that he is willing to travel, take risks and fight whoever stands between him and another title opportunity.
At 160lbs, Booker believes he has found a division where the opportunities are more plentiful, but he is not interested in simply rebuilding with a succession of routine contests. Having already shared a ring with a world champion, he wants to be back in that position as quickly as possible.
“I just feel like, to be honest with you, it was just from an opportunity standpoint,” Booker tells Irish Boxing Digest when discussing his move up from light-middleweight. “I just don’t feel like anybody was giving me opportunities at 154.”
Booker feels the Fundora fight was proof of his willingness to take the kind of challenge that others were reluctant to accept. While he did not get the result he wanted, he believes his decision to step up and face the dangerous champion demonstrated exactly what kind of fighter he is.
“The reason I got the opportunity with Fundora is because everybody else at 154 was scared to fight him, and I wasn’t,” he says.
That mentality has not changed.
Booker calls for the big fights
Callum Walsh is one name already on his radar. Booker recently described the Irishman as “protected”, a comment he insists was about matchmaking rather than an attempt to dismiss Walsh as a fighter.
“He is a good fighter,” Booker says. “I feel like I could beat him.”
Booker claims to have been approached about a potential fight twice, but says the contest has not materialised. From his perspective, that is precisely why he used the word protected.
“I said he was protected just because they’ll put who they want in front of him, as opposed to putting the actual best guys in front of him,” he explains. “They’re protecting him from me.”
Whether Walsh eventually answers the call or not, Booker is not prepared to sit around waiting for one particular opponent.
If the Walsh fight cannot be made, his ambitions extend across the middleweight landscape.
“I will fight Carlos Adames, Aaron McKenna, Tim Tszyu,” he says. “I definitely want to fight any of the champions, or anybody that can get me to a fight with the champions.”
That list tells you plenty about where Booker sees himself at this stage of his career. He is not looking for a comfortable route back towards the top. He wants the fighters who can take him there.
And if that opportunity means travelling to Ireland, Booker is more than willing to make the journey.
Aaron McKenna’s emergence as an IBF champion provides an obvious connection, and Booker has no hesitation when asked whether he would travel across the Atlantic for a world title opportunity.
For a fighter who has already demonstrated a willingness to take risks, fighting for a championship on foreign soil would be another challenge rather than a deterrent.
Respect for the middleweight contenders
Booker’s confidence is clear, but he is equally willing to acknowledge the quality around him.
Carlos Adames is one of the fighters he respects most. Booker describes him as tough and praises his skillset, while also recalling how Adames competed with Terence Crawford in their sparring days.
“Carlos Adames is tough, bro,” Booker says. “I think his skill is dope.”
He also has plenty of respect for Omari Jones, a fighter Booker views as one of the division’s emerging talents.
“Omari Jones is dope. He’s a good fighter, up and coming. I think he’s gonna be hard to deal with for a lot of people.”
Tszyu is another fighter Booker rates highly, but there is more than admiration behind his comments about the Australian. Booker sees a genuine fight that makes sense for both men.
“Tim, of course, is great talent,” he says. “I think me and him make sense. I think me and Tim make sense for a fight.”
Denzel Bentley receives a similarly assessment. Booker likes the Londoner’s style, although he believes Bentley can sometimes be a little too upright.
Then there is Shane Mosley Jr., someone Booker knows particularly well from their amateur days.
“He’s a very talented,” Booker says, pointing to Mosley’s boxing education that comes from growing up around his father, the legendary Shane Mosley.
It is an interesting collection of names, and Booker’s assessment of each gives an insight into the level at which he wants to operate.
He is not calling for soft touches.
He wants fighters with something to offer and, ultimately, a route towards a championship.
The opportunity that changed everything
There is also a deeper reason why Booker appears so unwilling to waste time at this stage of his career.
Boxing was not always about world titles for him.
In fact, when he first walked into a gym, it was not because he had mapped out a career in professional boxing. It was because he needed to change the direction of his life.
As a youngster, Booker remembers reading a middle-school book about a troubled kid who found himself in serious trouble. He cannot remember the name of the book, but years later he found himself living through circumstances that felt remarkably similar.
Booker had been caught with two guns and drugs and was facing the possibility of 13 years in prison.
With his future hanging in the balance, he forced himself into a boxing gym.
“I just forced myself into the gym to give myself some structure, to not be outside with the same crowd that I was hanging out with,” he recalls.
Even at that point, Booker believed prison was probably waiting for him. But he knew he could not continue down the same road.
The gym gave him somewhere to go and something to work towards. It helped him distance himself from the environment that had contributed to his problems and, as Booker puts it, change the way he was thinking.
He ultimately received three years of probation.
The second chance that followed has since taken him much further than simply keeping him out of trouble.
It has taken him to a professional record of 25-2, produced 13 knockout victories and, most importantly, given him the opportunity to challenge for a world championship.
Another chance
That world title opportunity came against Fundora, and although Booker came up short, he does not view the defeat as something that should diminish his standing.
Quite the opposite.
He believes the fight demonstrated that he is willing to test himself against the best available opposition, and he wants that same opportunity again.
“I feel like I’m deserving of that, being that I came up short against a world champion,” Booker says. “I didn’t lose to no guy who was just, like, some bum.”
Now the task is to turn that belief into another opportunity.
Middleweight could provide the platform.
Booker has made it clear that he is willing to fight the leading names, whether that means facing Walsh, travelling to Ireland to meet McKenna, or taking on Adames, Tszyu or another champion.
For him, the destination is more important than the route.
There is no guarantee that the next opportunity will come quickly, and boxing rarely rewards patience without persistence. But Booker has already experienced what can happen when a fighter takes control of his own path rather than waiting for somebody else to open the door.
The young man who once entered a boxing gym because he needed to stay out of jail could never have known that the decision would eventually lead him to a world title fight.
Now, after coming up short against Fundora, he is trying to make sure the story does not end there.
Booker has already been given a second chance once.
He intends to make the most of the next one.
And judging by the names he is calling for, he has no intention of waiting around for it.
IRISH BOXING DIGEST 
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