By Sean Jones: Golden Boy Promotions are working on adding exiting WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (30-0, 25 KOs) to the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin 2 card on September 15 on HBO pay-per-view, according to Dan Rafael.
If everything goes right, Munguia, 21, will be in he co-feature against an opponent still to be determined. Golden Boy President Eric Gomez is working on assembling the undercar, and he hopes to have it completed within 10 days. Munguia still needs an opponent. He’s coming off an entertaining 12 round unanimous decision win over mandatory challenger Liam ‘Beefy’ Smith (26-2-1, 14 KOs) last Saturday night on July 21 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Munguia made it a fun to watch fight with his aggressive attacking style of fighting. This would be a voluntary defense for Munguia, which means that his opponent might not be a good one. There are some interesting contenders in the WBO’s top 15 rankings that would make for a good opponent for Munguia to face. Kell Brook would be ideal for Munguia. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn says Brook plans on fighting in September, and he wants a high profile opponent that he can get excited about. Who better than Munguia? There’s also Erislandy Lara, Julian ‘J-Rock’ Williams, Tony Harrison or Liam Williams. Those are big punchers.
It would be a big compliment to Munguia for him to be in the co-feature, because former four division world champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) will be fighting on the televised portion of the HBO PPV card. Chocolatito is being put on the card by GGG’s promoter Tom Loeffler. The opponent being mentioned as facing Chocolatito is Moises Fuentes (25-5-1, 14 KOs), who has lost three out of his last four fights. The 31-year-old Gonzalez’s career is looking just as bad, as he lost both of his fights in 2017 to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. It would have looked bad if Gonzalez was put in the co-feature bout given the quality of his opponent and how his own career is looking right now. There’s no chance that Loefler would try and put Chocolaito back in with Rungvisai for a third time, as the Thailand fighter clearly has his number. Gonzalez is still a good fighter, but he doesn’t belong at 115. He thrived when fighting at 105, 108 and 112. Gonzalez’s career will likely never be the same if he chooses to stay at super flyweight. Gonzalez’s potential opponent Fuentes fights at flyweight. It would be great to see Gonzalez dropping back down to flyweight at 112, but it’s not likely to happen. He seems to be stuck a 115 for better or for worse.
Also being planned by Gomez for the Canelo vs. Golovkin undercard is a fight between former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (39-4, 33 KOs) and contender Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan (28-2, 20 KOs). This will be a nice little war between big punchers. This fight is supposed to take place at 160, but it’s unclear if the 29-year-old Lemieux will be able to make weight. Lemieux has failed to make weight for three out of his four fights. He’s supposed to be moving up to 168. Asking Lemieux to make 160 for the O’Sullivan fight could be a mistake.
The last time Lemieux did make the 160-pound limit against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders last December, he looked sluggish and slow after he rehydrated. Lemieux looked overhydrated during the fight. For his last fight against Karim Achour, Lemieux was in better shape, and yet still came in two pounds over the middleweight limit at 160. O’Sullivan is being groomed as a future opponent for Canelo. If O’Sullivan beats Lemieux, then he could be a potential opponent for Canelo. O’Sullivan, 34, has won his last six fights since losing to Chris Eubank Jr. by a 7th round stoppage on December 12, 2015. In O’Sullivan’s recent fights, he’s defeated welterweight Berlin Abreu, Antoine Douglas and Nick Quigley. O’Sullivan recently had a chance to step in and face Golovkin as his replacement opponent for Canelo on May 5, but he chose not to take the fight when the bout was taken off HBO PPV.
Here are the fights being worked on for the televised portion of the Canelo-Golovkin 2 undercard:
– Jaime Munguia vs. TBA
– Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan vs. David Lemieux
– Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez vs. TBA
It’s a decent undercard for HBO PPV. Munguia stands out as the only relevant fighter of that bunch.