By Huck Allen: Former WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (38-0, 30 KOs) defeated Gabe Rosado (26-14-1, 15 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
The younger fighter Munguia, 25, got the better of the 35-year-old Rosado with his volume punching. Rosado did make many of the rounds difficult to score due to him hurting Munguia with shots to the head and body.
However, some of the punches Rosado was landing at times were illegal rabbit shots, which the referee should have done a better job policing.
The scores were:
- 118-110
- 119-109
- 117-111
“I thought the scores were wide. I thought it was closer,” said Rosado. “I thought the fight was a lot closer. The scorecards were wide, I never had a chance.
When Munguia was interviewed, he said he would be interested in challenging IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin next.
Boxing News 24 will be giving updates below:
- In the best fight of the undercard, welterweight fringe contender Alexis Rocha (18-1, 12 KOs) defeated Joevanis Barraza (22-2, 15 KOs) by a ninth round knockout. Rocha battered Barraza in a mostly one-sided affair until finally, the referee stepped in a mercifully halted the fight in the ninth. The time of the stoppage was at the :33 mark.
- Middleweight D’Mitrius Ballard (21-0, 11 KOs) beat the always tough Paul Valenzuela Jr. (26-9, 17 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 98-92l
- Undefeated lightweight contender William Zepeda (24-0, 22 KOs) kept his perfect record intact with a fourth round stoppage victory over John Moralde (24-5, 13 KOs0. The fight was halted by the referee due to Moralde taking too much one-way punishment from Zepeda. The time of the stoppage was at 1:59 of the fourth.
- Arely Mucino (30-3-2, 10 KOs) defeated Jacky Calvo (14-7-2, 1 KOs) by a 10 round split decision in a women’s flyweight fight. The scores were 96-93, 96-93 Mucino, and 96-93 for Calvo.
Preview:
Munguia and Rosado are hoping to challenge for a world title in 2022. Rosado, 35, wants to keep his career alive after a big bounce-back victory last June over Bektemir Melikuziev
Munguia is fighting for the fourth time at 160, but the jury is still out on whether he’s ever going to win a world title in this weight class.
Munguia vs. Rosado card:
Arely Mucino vs. 10×2 Jacky Calvo
D’Mitrius Ballard vs. Paul Valenzuela Jr.
Alexis Roacha vs. Jeovanis Barraza
William Zepeda vs. John Vincent Moralde
Alejandro Reyes vs. Osmel Mayorga
Jorge Chavez vs. Gilberto Aguilar
Asa Stevens vs. Felix Mendez Vasquez
Munguia vs. Rosado = old time classic
“First of all, the match-up fits hand & glove,” said Bernard Hopkins to Fight Hub TV on tonight’s main event fight between Jaime Munguia and Gabe Rosado. “It’s going to come down to who wants it the most and who has the best plan.
“Whoever has the best plan and wants it the most is going to be victorious,” Hopkins continued on his view of the Munguia vs. Rosado fight. “Munguia is not backing down.
“He’s not shy from getting hit or going down and getting up and destroying his opponents, at least up until now. You have that mentality going up Rosado. I don’t have to tell you about Rosado’s mentality.
“This is our modern-day Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti. This is going to be that type of war. But the difference in the styles and abilities that they have in this era, Munguia and Rosado.
“They both have other things that they’re good at whereas those fighters I mentioned, Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti, were limited to certain things,” said Hopkins.
At 154, Munguia took advantage of being put in the perfect situation by facing a flawed champion in Sadam Ali to win the WBO junior middleweight title.
Ali was essentially a welterweight, who moved up in weight to defeat an old and injured Miguel Cotto in 2017.
When Munguia came along, he took advantage of a weak champion that would have never been a world champion if not for Cotto being old and injured.
At 160, it’s not going to be as easy for Munguia because there are no champions as vulnerable as Cotto was at the end of his career. Unless a belt opens up with one of the champions vacating or retiring, Munguia may have a tough time.
Munguia-Rosado is 50/50 match-up
“They didn’t really box or step back to do some slick stuff to buy some time to get their bearings right because they maybe got hit, maybe got hurt maybe got cut,” said Hopkins. “I see a lot more ability from this match-up [Munguia vs. Rosado] on both guys’ sides.
“Nobody has the advantage in this fight,” said Hopkins. “Listen, Munguia might be because of age the favorite, but the live dog in Rosado and a more dangerous dog too. So the fans win again.
“He believes he can win and he’s not coming in as an opponent,” Hopkins said of Rosado being the best he’s ever been in his career.
“When you have a person that went in and always tried to win but knowing if he didn’t get a knockout or if he didn’t win 10 out of the 12 rounds or 8 out of 10 rounds of the fight or whatever the rounds are, then he ain’t getting nothing without taking it.
“You know what a dangerous man is? A dangerous man has nothing to lose. Rosado has got more to lose than Munguia and Munguia has more to lose than Rosado. I say it’s the first.
“Rosado has nothing to lose. That’s the guy I’m going with. The guy I’m paying attention to and the ability that led up to this. I’m cut from the type of cloth where that’s a dangerous man because every fight he [Rosado] fought since Daniel Jacobs [in November 2020], there’s either one more defeat and they knew they were burying.
“They had the shovel in the dirt ready. So, he knows he’s fighting every fight that it’s a victory to move forward or dirt to bury him in the graveyard,” said Hopkins.
Rosado has learned from Hopkins
“It grew on me that he was smart enough to ask questions and really humble enough to not think he knew everything himself and I started taking him to camp,” said Hopkins about Rosado.
“He was like the third or fourth sparring partner that I had because I never really wanted to let my sparring partners think they were sparring partners. They were my helpers.
“So, I always wanted my helpers to go in there with a mentality that you ain’t my sparring partners, you’re my helpers because the best you can give me the more you can learn in the process because you have your own career.
“Gabe is a product of that as you’ve seen here up until recently, he’d been in 15 of 16 camps with me, learning. I’ve got to remind you now, he was young and I took him under my wing.
“That’s what Philly do. We look out for each other. We might fight each other, but we look out for each other,” said Hopkins.
Knockout artist Jaime Munguia and Gabe Rosado will be meeting tonight in the main event on DAZN at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The action starts at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 PT.
Former WBO junior middleweight champion Munguia (37-0, 30 KOs) and the dangerous puncher Rosado (26-13-1, 15 KOs) will be battling in a fight that could have huge implications for the winner.