By Barry Holbrook: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is open to matching Jaime Munguia (33-0, 26 KOs) against WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (29-0, 21 KOs) after he moves up to 160. Munguia is now trained by Erik Morales, who has made changes to his fighting style to improve him. We’ll see on September 14 if the changes in Munguia’s style are for the better.
Munguia, 22, will be vacating his WBO junior middleweight title after he defends it on September 14 against Patrick Allotey (40-3, 30 KOs) on DAZN at the Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, California. Lightweight contender Ryan Garcia is fighting Avery Sparrow on the undercard of the Munguia-Allotey card. There’s also hard hitting light welterweight Pablo Cesar Cano facing Michael Perez.
Munguia may not necessarily take on Charlo for his WBO title straightaway though, as De La Hoya mentions wanting to pit him against WBA/WBO [F] middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez. That fight will likely come before Munguia faces Charlo for his WBC belt.
“We’ve been working on keeping my hands up, moving my waist and using lateral movement. That’s what we have been practicing every day with my new trainer @terrible100.” @jaimemunguia15
Campđź“ť #MunguiaAllotey Sept 14 pic.twitter.com/HepBKmqfPE
— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) September 4, 2019
Munguia sitting down on his shots more says De La Hoya
“I like what I see of Jaime Munguia now that he has Erik Morales as a trainer,” said De La Hoya to Fighthype. “He’s having him sit down more on his punches; whereas before Jaime Munguia was holding too much. Now he has him sitting down on his punches, throwing combinations. He’s throwing punches in bunches, and he’s going for the knockout. That’s his style. At the same time he’s being smart, and moving his head. I like what I see. I’m expecting Jaime to box more, but be more aggressive and throw combinations.
Fighters today are just throwing one punch at a time. They want to knock you out with one punch. It’s not the first punch, and it’s the third punch. It’s the fourth punch that knocks you out. I like that Jaime is throwing more combinations. He’s going forward, and being more aggressive. We’ll see what happens on September 14th. I think we’re in for a special treat. Every single trainer I had, I picked up something new. Whether it was a boxing movement or moving side to side…I was able to pick up from all those trainers, and put it in a blender and mix it up, and create my own style. So I think we’re going to see some good things from Jaime Munguia come September 14th,” said De La Hoya.
Munguia’s defense will need to improve before he can fight Jermall Charlo or Canelo Alvarez, because he’s too vulnerable. A lot of boxing fans are excited about Munguia after his 4th round knockout win over Sadam Ali in 2018. Munguia looked poor in his last fight against Dennis Hogan last April, and he should have lost that fight.
De La Hoya: Munguia has a lot of pressure on him fighting on Sept.14
“There’s a lot of pressure on him fighting on September 14th,” said De La Hoya. “People are going to expect a lot from Jaime Munguia. They’re going to expect him to come out guns blazing. And they’re going to expect him to go out for a knockout, and that’s what they’re going to want to see, especially on that weekend. Just the fact that Canelo, myself, Julio Cesar Chavez fought on those dates; it means the world to everyone of Mexican heritage. If you’re Mexican American. You want to see a great fight, and I’m sure that Jaime Munguia and Allotey will give up a great fight,” said De La Hoya.
There will be pressure on Munguia fighting on September 14, but also because he’s headlining against an unknown fighter. Few people have ever heard of the 28-year-old Allotey and that puts Munguia in a no-win situation. If he beats Allotey, he won’t get credit. Losing to Allotey would be disastrous for Munguia, as would struggling to win. It’s good that Munguia is fighting on the Mexican Independence Day holiday, but it doesn’t help him that Golden Boy has matched him against a mediocre opponents.
The fact that Golden Boy chose to match Munguia against Allotey instead of one of the talented guys speaks volumes. It shows that Golden Boy don’t trust that Munguia can do the job against the talented contenders at 154. Munguia getting a new trainer in Morales shows that alarm bells are going off with Golden Boy.
I wouldn’t mind doing Munguia vs. Jermall Charlo says Oscar
“Jaime Munguia is a big kid. Fighting at 154, I have no idea how he makes the weight, but it’s time to move up to 160,” said De La Hoya. You have great fighters at 160. You have the gate keeper there Canelo Alvarez, who is the best at 160. But you also have guys like Charlo. I wouldn’t mind doing a Jaime Munguia vs. Charlo fight. I wouldn’t mind putting him up against anyone in that weight division. But the problem is fighters don’t want to fight each other nowadays. They want to take the easy route. Not Jaime Munguia. He wants to fight the very best, and we’re going to go after the very best. Whatever it takes, and whatever we have to do to fight the very best, we’re going to do it,” said De La Hoya.