By Jeff Aronow: Highly ranked WBC 160-lb contenders Jaime Munguia and Sergiy Derevyanchenko have been ordered to fight in a WBC middleweight title eliminator.
Don’t be surprised if Munguia chooses NOT to take the fight with the dangerous Derevyanchenko, as this fighter is arguably too advanced for him at this early stage of his career.
Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the World Boxing Council, told Mike Coppinger on Thursday that #1 Munguia (37-0, 30 KOs) and #2 Derevyanchenko (13-3, 10 KOs) have been ordered by his sanctioning body to start negotiations to decide the mandatory challenger for WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo.
Munguia, 24, and former three-time 160-lb world title challenger Derevyanchenko, 35, have until September 17th to negotiate a deal before a purse bid on that date.
Munguia vs. Rosado = fight Golden Boy wants
Derevyanchenko isn’t the fight that Munguia’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions wanted for him, as they were hoping to match him against the popular super middleweight contender Gabe Rosado next.
Munguia and Rosado shared the same card in their last fights, and it was made clear after the respective victories that they would fight next. The boxing public is already highly excited at seeing those two battle it out, and now it’s unclear if they will, given the WBC choosing to order Munguia and Derevyanchenko to fight.
Rosado (26-13-1, 15 KOs) is coming off a career-best third round knockout of the powerful young prospect Bektemir Melikuziev in a fight where he’d been knocked down and totally dominated in the first two rounds.
With Munguia’s popularity, he doesn’t need to fight in a WBC title eliminator against Derevyanchenko to get a title shot against champion Jermall Charlo. That’s a fight that Golden Boy would have little problems making.
They want to bring Munguia along slowly before putting him in the pole position to take on the dangerous unbeaten Jermall (32-0, 22 KOs) to challenge him for his WBC 160lb title.
“Munguia just found out [on potentially fighting Sergiy Derevyanchenko possibility],” Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez said to ESPN. “He’s going to circle back with us early next week.”
Is Munguia ready for Derevyanchenko?
This is a problematic fight for Munguia taking on Derevyanchenko. The Ukrainian has a lot of experience, as does Rosado, but he’s been fighting at a more advanced level lately.
Munguia would have the youth, power, and size advantage over Derevyanchenko, but that might not matter. As we saw in Munguia’s highly controversial win over Dennis Hogan in 2019, he’s capable of being outboxed by smart fighters, and Derevyanchenko is clever.
On technical ability alone, Derevyanchenko has the talent to beat Munguia and make him look bad. But with Derevyanchenko’s ring IQ, he could make things miserable for Munguia and expose him worse than Hogan did.
In Derevyanchenko’s last two fights, he’s lost to Jermall Charlo and Gennadiy Golovkin by a pair of 12 round decisions. However, Derevyanchenko gave the talented knockout artist Golovkin all he could handle in losing a controversial 12 round unanimous decision in October 2019.
Many boxing fans believe that the 2008 Ukrainian Olympian Derevyanchenko deserved the victory against Golovkin. He had him hurt and was outworking him throughout the fight, particularly down the stretch in the second half.
In Derevyanchenko’s last fight against Charlo, he didn’t look as good, losing a 12 round decision last year in September 2020. Although the fight was competitive, Derevyanchenko was thoroughly dominated by Charlo, who used his size, boxing skills, power, and athleticism to better the Ukrainian fighter.
Derevyanchenko took a lot of punishment in his fight with GGG in 2019, so it wasn’t all that surprising that Charlo soundly beat him. That was a fight that Sergiy would have been better off taking before he met up with the buzzsaw Golovkin two years ago.
If Golden Boy elects to go through with the WBC-ordered Munguia-Derevyanchenko fight, Munguia will have an excellent shot at winning due to the age and recent wear & tear on Derevyanchenko. Munguia would be catching Derevyanchenko at the perfect time to beat him.
It’s a risky fight for Munguia to take because Derevyanchenko has been in much better opposition during his seven-year professional career, which includes a controversial 12 round decision loss to Daniel Jacobs in October 2018.
If Derevyanchenko can recapture the form he showed against Golovkin and Jacobs, he likely beats Munguia and wrecks all the world that Golden Boy has done in the last eight years in slowly grooming the Mexican slugger/prospect to get to a world title for a big-money fight.