By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia and Tureano Johnson fight potentially in the world for October on DAZN. Mike Coppinger is reporting that the unbeaten #1 WBC & #1 WBO Munguia and Johnson (21-2-1, 15 KOs) have a contest in the works for October 24.
The 2008 Olympian Johnson is a risky fight for the 23-year-old Munguia, who looked poor earlier this year in his debut at 160 on January 11 against Gary’ Spike’ O’Sullivan in San Antonio, Texas.
Munguia stopped O’Sullivan in the 11th round, but he was hurt during the fight by him, and he had to fight hard for the win.
Size won’t be enough for Munguia at 160
That fight showed that Munguia isn’t going to be able to dominate with size at middleweight like he’d been doing at 154 for the last seven years since turning professional in 2013.
Tureano’s two career defeats have come against Curtis Stevens and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. In both fights, Tureano fought well and had a chance to win. He ran out of gas in both contests and ended up getting stopped in the final round.
Golden Boy Promotions are going to need to be careful with Munguia if they want to keep him unbeaten long enough to match him against Canelo Alvarez.
The Munguia vs. Tureano fight could wind up on Danny Jacobs’ card.
WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade is also on that card, and he could be facing Liam Williams. With Munguia (35-0, 28 KOs) ranked as Andrade’s top challenger with the World Boxing Organization at 160, it makes sense for him to be fighting on the same card as him.
You can’t call Tureano the first fight for Munguia at 160 because his last match was at middleweight against the smallish O’Sullivan. But Tureano is much more of a natural 160-pounder than O’Sullivan, who is more of a pumped-up middleweight.
Tureano will need to be well-conditioned
Johnson is coming off of an impressive 9th round stoppage win over previously unbeaten Jason Quigley (18-1, 14 KOs) on July 18 last year in Indio, California.
That was Johnson’s first win in two years since his second-round knockout of Fabiano Soares in February 2017. Unfortunately for Johnson, he hasn’t fought since his victory over Quigley.
If Johnson does get selected by Golden Boy to face Munguia in October, he’ll have been out of the ring for 15 months. That’s not good when you’re in the worse half of 30, and you have to hope for Johnson’s sake that he’s been working out all this time.
If he’s been sitting around on the couch for the last 14 months, he’ll be in trouble against Munguia. It’s not that Munguia is a great fighter. He’s badly flawed, but he’s young at 23, huge, and he can punch.
Munguia had to move up in weight to 160 due to his problems making 154. In Jaime’s title defense against Dennis Hogan last year in April, it was made clear that he needed to move up in weight.
Jaime finally outgrew 154-lb division
Hogan outboxed Munguia the entire fight, which took place in Monterrey, Mexico. When Munguia was announced as the winner by a 12 majority decision, the boxing fans at ringside jeered loudly, unhappy with the results.
Although the fans were pro-Munguia heading into the bout, they felt that he hadn’t done enough to retain his WBO 154-lb title. After that fight, Munguia made one final successful title defense of his WBO junior middleweight title in stopping little known fringe contender Patrick Allotey in the fourth round last year in September.
Munguia looked good in that fight, but he was facing a contender that looked like he should have been ranked well below the top 15.
The World Boxing Organization missed its mark in ranking Allotey. He looked like someone that stumbled into the ring from the crowd on the night. Munguia destroyed Allotey, but that’s not saying much, given how substandard he looked.
Jaime Munguia must find another way to win
Munguia captured the WBO junior middleweight title in 2018, beating Sadam Ali by a fourth-round knockout. Sadam was no match for the sheer size of Munguia, who looked like a massive middleweight even then.
Once Munguia won the WBO 154lb strap, Golden Boy kept him busy, having him defend his belt five times against these fighters:
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- Takeshi Inoue
- Liam Smith
- Patrick Allotey
- Dennis Hogan
- Brandon Cook
It was lucky for Munguia that he didn’t face one of the talented 154-pounders like Jarrett Hurd, Jeison Rosario, Jermell Charlo, or Julian Williams, because he likely would have lost to all of them.
Munguia is a guy that can punch hard, but his defensive ability doesn’t exist. He’s straightforward to hit, and he’s had to depend on his size to win.