By Jeff Aranow: WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (31-0, 26 KOs) weighed in at 153.2 pounds on Friday for his third title defense against the smaller 5’8″ Takeshi Inoue (13-0-1,7 KOs) this Saturday night on January 26 on DAZN at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas.
Inoue, 29, weighed in at 153.6 lbs. Although Inoue weighed a little heavier than Munguia, he looked far smaller than him when the two stood for a face off. The 6’0″ Munguia towered over Inoue when the two stood for the traditional face off.
Given the size disparity in between the two fighters, it’s quite understandable why Golden Boy Promotions picked out the little known Inoue for Munguia to fight rather than one of the top fighters in the World Boxing Organization’s rankings at 154. Inoue doesn’t look like a junior middleweight. He resembles a welterweight, which is probably the weight class that he should be fighting at.
“Absolutely,” Munguia’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions said to Fighthype when asked if he’s interested in seeing up a unification fight between Munguia and IBF/WBA 154 lb champion Jarrett Hurd. “The plans that I have for Munguia are unification [matches]. Munguia doesn’t know how to take a step backwards, and fighters like Charlo and fighters like Hurd are fighters who will fight you, who are not afraid of nobody. It’s a matter of making the fights. I think by making these fights, the sport wins, and the fans win. We’re looking forward to that. I think there’s a lot of great fights for boxing today. It’s refreshing that there are fighters that want to fight each other. It’s just a matter of making them,” De La Hoya said.
De La Hoya’s lack of specifics when it comes to Munguia’s immediate future isn’t all that surprising, because there are no plans for him to face IBF/WBA champion Hurd, Jermell Charlo or WBC champion Tony Harrison. The plan is for Munguia to defend against his WBO mandatory challenger Dennis Hogan next. He’s not a threat to beating Munguia.
Munguia won the WBO 154 lb title last year in stopping Sadam Ali in the fourth round last May. Munguia has defended the belt twice in beating Brandon Cook and Liam Smith. Munguia has looked good for the most part, but he’s not faced anyone that had the talent to test him in a real way.
WBA World featherweight champion Jesus Rojas (26-2-2, 19 KOs) weighed in right at the limit at 126 pounds for his title defense against #2 WBA Xu Can (15-2, 2 KOs). The 24-year-old Can weighed in at 125.6 lbs. Rojas, 32, will be defending his World Boxing Association ‘regular 126 lb title despite losing his last fight against Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision last August.
Diaz came in overweight by a half pound at 126.5 lbs, so he didn’t have a chance to win the title from Rojas. Under the WBA’s rules, Rojas gets to keep his title despite losing the fight due to Diaz being overweight for the contest.
