By Dan Ambrose: It didn’t take newly crowned WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (29-0, 24 KOs) to attract interest from unbeaten IBF 154lb champion Jarrett ‘Swift’ Hurd (22-0, 15 KOs).
Hurd, who is known for his high-punching style, heavy hands and his tendency to come on late in his fights, said on Sunday that he wants to fight for the WBO junior middleweight title now. Munguia, 21, won the WBO belt last Saturday night in stopping champion Sadam ‘World Kid’ Ali (26-2, 14 KOs) in the 4th round in a fight televised by HBO World Championship Boxing at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York.
Munguia says he’ll fight Hurd, Gennady Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez. He says wants them all.
”Let me get that WBO!” Hurd said on his social media site.
If Munguia can pull off an upset by beating Jarrett Hurd, he could be on his way to stardom in hurry. That would be a monstrous victory for Munguia. It’s one thing for Munguia to beat up on a welterweight like Sadam Ali. It’s another thing altogether for him to defeat a top junior middleweight like Hurd. If Munguia could beat Hurd, Jermell Charlo and Erislandy Lara in succession, he would be right where Gennady Golovkin is now in terms of popularity. Munguia wouldn’t be as popular as Canelo still, but he would be on his way to achieving that kind of popularity.
I’ll take them all,” Munguia said to Fighthub when asked if he’s interested in fighting Golovkin, Jarrett Hurd and Saul Canelo Alvarez.
Last Saturday, Munguia let the boxing fans know that he’s ready to fight the best fighters in the 154lb division after annihilating the undersized, underpowered 29-year-old Sadam Ali in 4 rounds. After the fight, Munguia said this to Max Kellerman of HBO:
”I want to thank the Nevada Commission for making this opportunity possible as they didn’t allow me to fight Gennady Golovkin,” Munguia said. ”I want to show that I am ready to fight at the highest level and with the best fighter,” Munguia said.
If Munguia is serious about wanting to fight the best at junior middleweight, then he’s going to need to clear that up with his promoters at Golden Boy, because they might want to have him milk his WBO 154lb title for a while longer and put him in winnable money fights against smaller fighters like Kell Brook and Maciej Sulecki. Matching Munguia against the 27-year-old Hurd would be a bad idea, because he’s easy to hit, slow and he doesn’t throw nearly as many punches as the Maryland native.
Promoter Lou DiBella feels that boxing fans shouldn’t get too excited about Munguia’s accomplishment in knocking out Sadam Ali in 4 rounds. DiBella points out that the 29-year-old Ali is a natural welterweight, who moved up to junior middleweight just recently for his fight against former WBO 154lb champion Miguel Cotto last December. Cotto suffered a biceps injury in round 7, and Ali was able to take over the fight and box his way to a 12 round decision in results that were very close.
”Don’t get carried away!! #Munguia just beat a welter, not a huge, proven 154 pound champ,” DiBella said on his social Media. ”Munguia would have no size advantage on Swift Hurd and is significantly slower and less experienced.[Fernando] Beltran [of Zanfer Promotions] knows too much to make that match now. Hurd easy,” DiBella said.
It’s still hard to say whether Munguia’s management would keep him from fighting Hurd. They were ready and willing to have Munguia fight middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in his fight last week on May 5. If not for the Nevada State Athletic Commission blocking that fight, Munguia would have fought Golovkin and likely lost to him.
”I want to thank the Nevada Commission for making this opportunity possible as they didn’t allow me to fight Gennady Golovkin,” Munguia said in taking the chance to gloat after his win over Sadam Ali last Saturday night.
The Nevada Commission made the right decision in choosing not to sanction the Golovkin-Munguia fight because of the inexperience for Munguia at 160 and his lack of wins over world class competition during his shot career.
DiBella thinks Sadam Ali’s promoters made a mistake of letting him use the huge 6’1” Munguia as the replacement opponent for Liam Smith for last Saturday’s fight after the British fighter dropped out of the fight with a skin allergy problem. Golden Boy could have selected an easier option for Sadam, especially given that he only had a couple of weeks to prepare for a different fighter.
In looking at the list of contenders in the World Boxing Organization’s top 15 at 154, Golden Boy could have attempted to use one of these fighters as the replacement opponent for Sadam Ali to fight:
– Dennis Hogan
– Jimmy Kelly
– Kanat Islam
– John Vera
– Brandon Cook
– Takeshi Inoue
– Nathaniel Gallimore
– Liam Williams
– Bakhram Murtazaliev
– Yoshihiro Kamegai
– Sebastian Formella
– Ismail Iliev
Ali would have had a good chance of beating many of those fighters, because most of them aren’t big punchers like Munguia. Ali weighed 169 pounds last Saturday after rehydrating. he had the size to fight at 154, but the weight didn’t look solid on Ali’s frame compared to Munguia, who rehydrated to 170 lbs. Ali looked plump, like he’d eaten his way to 169 rather than adding muscle mass that way fighters should when they’re moving up in weight.
”They did ‘Real World Kid’ Ali no favors with this match. Not even a fight. GROSS size mismatch. Wow, I don’t know why they took this fight. Just look at this size difference! #AliMunguia,” DiBella said.
Munguia was just 1 pound heavier than Ali at 170lbs, but the weight looked so much more solid on his 6’1” frame. Technically, Munguia weighed in as a light heavyweight on fight night, but that’s not out of the ordinary. Other junior middleweights like Liam Smith, Jermell Charlo, Erislandy Lara, Jarrett Hurd and Austin Trout all rehydrate into the 170. It was the power difference between Munguia and Ali that made the fight such a mismatch more so than the weight on fight night.
Munguia had the punching power of a true middleweight, whereas Ali was still punching at welterweight level power. Ali had never fought anyone with that kind of power before during his career, and he wilted almost immediately. Munguia walked through Ali’s punches as if they were nothing. He was not bothered in the slightest with Ali’s shots. It didn’t matter if Ali loaded up. He was still too weak to hurt Munguia.
Munguia makes the 154lb division more interesting if he can continue to make the weight. If Munguia moves up to middleweight, he’ll no longer have a huge advantage over his opponents, because there are some very big punchers at 160 in Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, Daniel Jacobs and David Lemieux. Munguia is no more powerful than those fighters. He might not have that kind of power.
If boxing were to go back to fight day weigh-ins, then fighters that rehydrate a ton like Munguia would be forced to fight in his natural weight class, which for him would probably be middleweight. If the weigh-in in the morning of the fight, then Munguia could limit fluids to make weight, and then quickly rehydrate to his natural 170 lbs.
I think it would likely lead to some fighters abusing the system by using an IV to rapidly rehydrate to get the water weight back on. The only real way to prevent fighters from ‘gaming the system’ would be to have them weigh-in just before they step inside the ring. Obviously, boxing promoters couldn’t cancel fights at the last second without hurting the sport, so they would need to introduce huge fines for fighters that miss weight.
”And they will let Munguia fight anyone he wants after this,” DiBella asked. ”Dude’s a true middle and real big at 154. Has pop too. #AliMunguia PS: this fight is over. Was when it started. Welter vs. Middle.”
Ali vs. Munguia was far worse size mismatch than middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s fight against former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in September 2016. The reason for that is Brook has always been a junior middleweight, who has melted down to fight at welterweight his entire career. Golovkin is the same size as the junior middleweights Jermell Charlo, Erislandy Lara and Hurd. So, Brook and Golovkin weren’t far apart in weight
