By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia requires a replacement opponent for his April 24th card on DAZN after scheduled foe Maciej Sulecki suffered an injury. I knew it was too good to be true.
This writer predicted Sulecki would suffer an injury training camp and would need to pull out, and sure enough, that’s what’s happened. That’s great news for Munguia because Sulecki was a REAL threat to him.
According to Mike Coppinger, D’Mitrius Ballard (20-0-1, 13, a stablemate of Munguia (36-0, 29 KOs) at Golden Boy Promotions, is someone they’re looking at to step in.
It’s just as well for Munguia that he’s no longer fighting the 31-year-old Sulecki because that would have been a risky fight, and there’s a good chance he would have lost.
The 28-year-old Ballard is more beatable for Munguia, and he’s coming off a 10 round draw against two-time Olympian Yamaguchi Falcao last December. Ballard was very fortunate to get a draw in that fight, as Falcao looked like he deserved the win.
Other than that, Ballard has been a pro for eight years and fought pretty much no one. It’s hard to understand how Ballard floated through eight years, and the best name on his resume is Falcao, who should have beaten him. But then again, Munguia’s resume is lackluster as well, and he’s an eight-year pro.
Jason Quigley is also a possibility for Munguia as well. Quigley lost to Tureano Johnson in 2019 by a ninth-round technical decision. The fact that Quigley lost to Tureano, Munguia’s last victim, is reason enough for him not to be considered.
Good options for Munguia:
- Gabe Rosado
- Daniel Jacobs
- Sergiy Derevyanchenko
- Chris Eubank Jr
- Kanat Islam
In this case, Golden Boy needs to consider pulling an opponent from the 154 or 168-lb weight classes for Munguia to fight so that they can find someone that will interest fans. Who wouldn’t want to watch Tim Tszyu, Erislandy Lara, Jarett Hurd, or Israel Madrimov take on Munguia.
I doubt Golden Boy would agree to let any of those guys fight Munguia for obvious reasons, but it would be fun to watch.
In scanning the middleweight division’s rankings, the 160-lb weight class has really weakened.
There are literally almost no names in the division now, and it’s pathetic how weak it is. Even though Munguia is terribly flawed fighter, he’s likely to win a world title at 160 once Jermall Charlo or Gennadiy Golovkin clear out.
The injury for Sulecki is bad news for DAZN because a mismatch between Munguia and a replacement won’t interest boxing fans. We’re assuming that DAZN will stick with Munguia as the main event against whoever Golden Boy can find for him.
But it would be interesting if DAZN rejects the fight if the replacement isn’t good enough to spark interest from the fans. As it was, Munguia-Sulecki was arguably a borderline-level fight. But it’s hard to say if Ballard is a big enough name to get DAZN to give the green light to him as the replacement.
One of the criticisms that Munguia has had is he’s been matched against weak opposition his entire eight-year professional career.
Although Sulecki had lost his biggest fights as a pro against Daniel Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade, he was still world’s better than the guys that Munguia had been feeding off of.
Fans want to see Munguia finally face someone, as they’re tired of hearing how great he’s going to be someday. They want to see him fight someone good now instead of watching him beat up on 2nd tier opposition.
Munguia has recent wins over Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan, Tureano Johnson, Patrick Allotey, and his dubious decision win over Dennis Hogan. In Munguia’s last fight against Tureano, he stopped him in the sixth round after cutting his lip with an uppercut last October.