By Aragon Garcia: WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (32-0, 26 KOs) could possibly be fighting for the last time at 154 when he defends his title against mandatory Dennis Hogan (28-1-1, 7 KOs) in nine days from now on April 13 LIVE on DAZN at the Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
It’s not easy for Munguia to make weight at 154 for his title defenses of his WBO belt, and he wants to move up to take on the lions at 160 like Gennady Golovkin, who he was scheduled to fight last year, and Saul Canelo Alvarez
Munguia, 22, rates himself as the #1 fighter in the junior middleweight division above the likes of Jarrett Hurd, Jermell Charlo, and Tony Harrison. Munguia would like to stick around to fight those guys, but he wants to move up in weight to 160 and broaden his horizons in the middleweight division. There’s many more big fights that can be made for Munguia at 160 right now than waiting in line to get a shot at the eventual winner of the series of fights that are taking place between Harrison-Charlo, and Hurd. WBC junior middleweight champion Tony Harrison will be fighting a rematch against Jermell this summer to clear up the controversy of their fight on December 22 last year in Brooklyn, New York. The winner of that fight will face IBF/WBA 154 lb unified champion Hurd. Those fights will likely take up the rest of 2019. Munguia isn’t going to wait on them. He’ll be moving up to 160 by the end of the year to go after the likes of GGG and Canelo.
“I would consider myself No. 1. The truth is, and with all due respect, and I’m saying it with as much humility as possible, that I feel like I consider myself No. 1,” Munguia said. “I feel even more ready [to fight Golovkin]. So with pleasure we would accept the fight, but right now I’m focused on the fight that I have on April 13th, but after that with pleasure we would take this fight.”
Golovkin just signed a new six-fight contract with DAZN, and he’ll be making his first fight with the streaming company on June 8 or 14 against likely Hassan N’Dam at Madison Square Garden in New York. Golovkin after that is supposed to be facing Canelo Alvarez next September on DAZN. That could change though if one of them decides to go in a different direction. Canelo will be fighting IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs on May 4 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. If those two put on a good show, the boxing fans might want to see Canelo and Jacobs do it again in September. Golovkin can get in line and face the winner. Munguia and Golovkin would be a great fight to make in September if Canelo is busy fighting Jacobs again or someone else. There’s no rush for Canelo and Golovkin to fight a third time. There are plenty of other great fights that can be made before they face each other again.
Munguia’s is a star in the making. Staying at 154 any longer is just going to hold him back, especially with him defending against guys that bring nothing to the table like Dennis Hogan, Takeshi Inoue, Brandon Cook and Liam Smith. Those fights barely registered with the U.S boxing fans. Munguia won’t start getting noticed by the fans until he moves up to 160, and starts taking on GGG, Canelo, Daniel Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade.
The Australian “Hurricane” Hogan, 34, is highly rated at #1 by the World Boxing Organization, but he’s coming into the fight with Munguia with virtually zero experience at the world level. The WBO appears to have Hogan rated highly based on his 33-1 record, but not on the level of opposition that he’s faced, which has been poor through most of his eight-year pro career. Hogan has fought one world class fighter during all those years in Jack Culcay, but he was beaten by him in a 12 round unanimous decision loss on December 5, 2015. The scores were 117-111, 119-109 and 116-112. That fight showed that Hogan wasn’t ready to take on the upper level world class opposition. Following that loss, Hogan went back to fighting lower level opposition, and he’s won his last six fights. The WBO ranked him #1 anyway without Hogan needing to prove himself against an upper tier fighter.
“I’m big for 154 pounds…I will be moving to 160 pounds,” Munguia said.
Staying at 154 would make things easy for Munguia. The contenders in the WBO’s top 15 are guys that Munguia can likely easily handle, and hold onto his title for many years. The drawback to Munguia staying at 154 is he won’t get much attention. There isn’t enough talented fighters in the junior middleweight division for Munguia to become a star. Moreover, many of the fighters in the division are with Premier Boxing Champions, and fight on Showtime. With Munguia fighting on DAZN, it makes putting together fights with the other top 154 lb fighters problematic.