By Mark Eisner: In a competitive fight, former WBO 154-lb champion Jaime Munguia (36-0, 29 KOs) defeated Tureano Johnson (21-3-1, 15 KOs) by an injury-aided sixth-round stoppage on Friday night on DAZN at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
Johnson’s face looked like it was cut to bits by the end of the sixth. Along with his cut lip, Johnson had a bad cut over his left eye that was leaking, and there was a lot of swelling. All the ring wars that Johnson has had as a pro has left a lot of scar tissue over his eyes.
Munguia, 24, took advantage of Tureano’s bull rushing by catching him with an uppercut in the sixth round that cut his lip badly. There was too much blood for the contest to continued. After the round ended, the referee stopped the contest.
Before the stoppage, the fight had been a back and forth match with both guys taking turns landing punches. Tureano outworked Munguia the whole way, but he didn’t land with the same kind of power.
At the time o the stoppage, Munguia was ahead by the scores 59-55, 58-56, and 59-55. The fight was a lot closer than the scored turned in by the three judges, but it wasn’t surprising that they had it so wide.
Munguia was the A-side, and he’s the one with a long future ahead of him, not the 36-year-old Johnson.
Munguia’s defense was nonexistent as always, and didn’t show any improvement from the fighter we’ve seen in the last seven years. Golden Boy Promotions will need to think hard before stepping Munguia up against better opposition.
Munguia has talked all week about wanting to challenge IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin in 2021.
Tonight’s fight showed that Munguia would stand no chance against Golovkin, and he’d likely end up getting embarrassed the way Julio Cesar Chavez Jr did when he fought Sergio Martinez.
Munguia is too easy to hit, and Golovkin would have a field stay against a flawed fighter like him. Tureano had Munguia hurt at one point in the fight, and he’s not a big puncher like Golovkin.
If Golden Boy wants to cash out with Munguia, Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez is the way to go. But sooner or later, Munguia is going to get beaten by one of the contenders if Golden Boy makes a mistake and matches him against someone a little too good.
In early live results on the card:
- Marlen Esparza (8-1-1, 1 KOs) defeated Sulem Urbina (12-1, 2 KOs) by an eight-round unanimous decision in a World Boxing Council female flyweight title eliminator. The judges’ scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 78-74.
- In a fight tougher than expected, WBO light flyweight champion Elwin Soto (18-1, 12 KOs) defeated challenger Carlos Buitrago (32-6-1, 18 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 119-109, 117-111, and 115-113. Boxing News 24 scored it 117-111.
- Undefeated welterweight Rashidi Ellis (23-0, 14 KOs) defeated Alexis Rocha (16-1, 10 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision. The judges scored the fight 116-112, 116-112, and 115-113. With the win, Ellis picks up the vacant World Boxing Council International Silver 147-lb strap
Preview:
Jaime Munguia and Tureano Johnson will be going at it tonight in middleweight action in a 12-round contest on DAZN at 8:00 p.m. ET in the headliner attraction at the Fantasy Springs in Indio, California.
Munguia, 6’0″, has been called a “weight bully” by a lot of boxing fans for him fighting against smaller fighters than himself in the 154-pound weight class for six years from 2013 to 2019. But now that he’s at 160, he’ll be facing guys his own size or close to it.
Tonight, Munguia will have a two-inch height advantage over the 5’10” Johnson, but that won’t be the reason for him winning if he gets the ‘W.’ Munguia is a bigger fighter with more power, and that’s going to make it difficult for Tureano
The former WBO junior middleweight champion Munguia (35-0, 28 KOs) puts his unbeaten record and high #1 WBO and #2 WBC ranking at 160 on the line against the always tough 36-year-old Johnson (21-2-1, 15 KOs).
For the fans that saw Munguia’s last fight against Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan last January, they know that Tureano is far from a sure thing win for him. Tureano is a better fighter than O’Sullivan, and Munguia almost lost to him. O’Sullivan had Munguia hurt at one point in the content, and he landed a lot of punishing blows against the easy to hit Golden Boy Promoted fighter.
The 24-year-old Munguia is the favorite with the odds-makers, as he’s got the size, youth, and power advantage over Tureano. With that said, Munguia was the favorite also in his title defense last year against Dennis Hogan in April 2019 in Monterrey, Mexico, and he arguably lost that fight.
The judges gave Munguia a 12 round majority decision, but the fans at ringside and in the U.S saw Hogan as the clear winner. Most people would agree that Tureano is a better fighter than Hogan as well as Spike O’Sullivan. That’s why tonight’s Munguia-Johnson match could be quite competitive, and we might even see an upset.
It’s going to be difficult for Tureano to win a decision, though, as Munguia is the guy that is being hyped and he’s the A-side. Golden Boy has big plans for Munguia with them looking to match him against Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin.
With those big fights ahead of Munguia, Tureano will need to do something really special for him to get the win tonight. If he’s going to win a decision, he’ll need to make it judge-proof where it’s so one-sided that will be no chance of a questionable decision
The former WBO 154lb champ Munguia will be fighting for the second time at 160. Although Munguia’s last opponent O’Sullivan has been a career-long 154-pounder, the fight still counted as his first match at 160 because that’s the weight class the contest took place at.
For the sake of argument, Tureano will be Munguia’s first fight at middleweight in a real sense, and for that reason, it’ll be intriguing to see how he does.
The 2008 Olympian Tureano has lost a couple of times in defeats against Curtis Stevens and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Johnson was a real handful for both, and the outcome was still in doubt up to the point where Tureano was knocked out.
Johnson looked outstanding in his last fight, stopping previously unbeaten Jason Quigley in the ninth round last year in July 2019.