By Allan Fox: The smoke has just barely cleared for Jaime Munguia’s 4th round demolition job on WBO junior middleweight champion Sadam Ali from last Saturday night and already the Mexican knockout artist is targeting WBC 154lb champion Jermell Charlo (30-0, 15 KOs) for a unification fight.
Munguia (29-0, 25 KOs) says he wants Charlo’s World Boxing Council 154lb title. Winning that prestigious WBC title would increase the popularity of the 21-year-old Munguia almost immediately, more so than his victory Ali, who was too small to offer up much resistance.
Munguia didn’t get as much credit from the boxing fans for his win over the 29-year-old Ali, because he only recently moved up from 147 to face an old and injured Miguel Cotto last December.
“I’m willing to face Jermell Charlo (WBC super welterweight champion), it would be a matter of talking to his company,” Munguia said to esto.com.mx. ”It would be important, the belt is the most prestigious in the world of boxing and I would love to have it, I am willing to fight with whatever it is,”
The Charlo fight will probably have to wait, because the WBO has already ordered Munguia to start negotiations for a fight against his mandatory challenger Liam Smith (26-1, 14 KOs). That fight could take place in August or September, according to Smith’s promoter Frank Warren.
The purse bid will take place on June 15 if a deal isn’t reached for the Munguia vs. Smith fight. However, Munguia’s promoter Fernando Beltran wants him to make a voluntary defense in Mexico before he faces his mandatory challenger Liam Smith. If the World Boxing Organization grants Munguia’s request to take a voluntary defense, then he’ll likely need to defend against one of the WBO’s top 15 contenders for them to sanction the fight.
“I want to bring show to Mexico, to my people, I would like to do it (a defense) in Tijuana, there are possibilities of the stadium (Gasmart), I have to talk to my promoter, “ Munguía said.
The options for Munguia’s defense would be against one of these fighters:
– Dennis Hogan
– Jimmy Kelly
– Kanat Islam
– John Vera
– Julian Williams
– Brandon Cook
– Takeshi Inoue
– Nathaniel Gallimore
– Liam Williams
– Bakham Murlazaliev
– Yoshihiro Kamegai
– Sebastian Formella
– Ismail Iliev
Jermell Charlo will be defending his title next month against former WBA 154lb champion Austin Trout (31-4, 17 KOs) on June 9 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It’s unlikely that Munguia is going to face Charlo next unless they can make a quick deal. The World Boxing Organization would likely let Munguia face Charlo in a unification fight, as the sanctioning bodies give more weight to the unification fights over simple mandatory defenses.
Munguia would also like to fight middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez. If he could get a shot at either of them, it’s likely he would forget about Liam Smith, an optional defense and Charlo and go immediately for Canelo or GGG.