Mexico’s Jaime Munguia Has Arrived in the Junior Middleweight Division!
By Rich “Lite It Up” Lopez
This past weekend was a big one in the world of boxing. Most of the attention was on the classic lightweight showdown in New York at Madison Square Garden between Vasyl Lomachenko and Jorge Linares. The fight did not disappoint and it was a great event. There was also another fight that took place the same night about 200 miles north in Verona, New York. The card was televised by HBO and Sadam Ali was the main event of the card. Ali was looking to continue his winning streak in the Junior Middleweight division after last year’s win over Miguel Cotto. Originally Ali was supposed to face top British contender Liam Smith, but Smith withdrew from the fight due to a skin condition. A late replacement was found and that fighter was Jaime Munguia. As the name was unknown, Ali was the big favorite to win and was expected to defend his title. However, Munguia had other plans that night.
Javier Munguia 29-0, 25 KO’s of Tijuana, Mexico made a statement in the Junior Middleweight division this past Saturday. The tall Mexican is only 21 years old and is an aggressive fighter with punching power. Prior to the Ali fight, Munguia had fought almost all of his fights in Mexico and worked up a nice undefeated record. Sure Ali was the favorite in the fight and rightfully so, as most people didn’t know who Munguia was. A lot of boxers from Mexico build good records over there, but we really don’t know how good they are until they step up in competition. When they do, sometimes they don’t make it or sometimes they do. Munguia has been shown on Mexican television a few times and he has looked good. He initially was going to fight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, but that fight fell through. Even though Munguia was disappointed he didn’t face GGG, he still landed a big fight against Sadam Ali.
It is obvious the size difference was a big factor in the fight. Munguia was too big and powerful for Ali. In fairness, Ali is more of a Welterweight and Munguia looked more like a Middleweight. Ali had the better skills and is the more polished fighter of the two. Still Munguia deserves all the credit after stopping Sadam Ali in four rounds. Munguia went in there, took care of business and showed that he is a new player in the Junior Middleweight division. It remains to be seen how far Munguia will go in his career, but it will be fun to see him while he lasts. He has many opponents in the division that he could face off such as Jarret Hurd, Jermell Charlo, and Erislandy Lara. They would all make good fights and hopefully they will be made in the near future. Munguia is 6’0” tall and would also match those fighters in size. Another thing Munguia accomplished over the weekend was he won the world title at the age of 21 years old. He came close to beating the record for being the youngest World Champion at this weight class. Fernando Vargas won the world title at 21 years old back in 1998 when he defeated Yori Boy Campas. The only difference is Vargas still has the record only by a few months.
Munguia was voted Prospect of the Year for 2017 by Ring Magazine and now he is a World Champion this year. That is a quick turnaround time from a prospect to a World Champion. Based on his style and knockout power, we should expect to see him again on HBO or another major network in the near future. He is definitely a force to be reckoned with.
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