By Allan Fox: Jaime Munguia and Sergiy Derevyanchenko have been ordered by the WBC to square off in a middleweight title eliminator to determine the mandatory challenger for WBC 160-lb champion Jermall Charlo.
If Derevyanchenko has anything left in the tank after two back-to-back grueling losses to Jermall Charlo and Gennadiy Golovkin, he’s got a decent shot at beating Munguia.
The logical question is, why didn’t the World Boxing Council cut to the chase and order Charlo to defend his WBC title against the #1 ranked contender Munguia?
That would have made things easier, but they wanted to be fair by having #1 ranked Munguia take on the #2 ranked WBC contender Derevyanchenko in the eliminator.
The trouble with that is Derevyanchenko has a two-fight losing streak, having lost to Jermall in 2020 and Gennadiy Golovkin in 2019.
In 2018, Derevyanchenko was beaten by Daniel Jacobs. So, in other words, Derevyanchenko has suffered defeats yearly in the last years, and if he loses his December 5th fight, that’ll be four consecutive years with him getting beaten.
The former WBO junior middleweight champion Munguia (38-0, 30 KOs) and two-time world title challenger Derevyanchenko (13-3, 10 KOs) is ranked #1 and #2 in the World Boxing Council’s top ten rankings at 160.
Before Derevyanchenko can face the 25-year-old Munguia in the WBC-ordered middleweight title eliminator, he still must get by the dangerous 154-lb top ten counter Carlos Adames (20-1, 16 KOs) on the undercard of Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz on December 5th on the SHOWTIME PPV card at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
If the 36-year-old Derevyanchenko wins that fight against Adames, and that’s a big IF, he’ll be ready to take on the unbeaten Munguia.
In Munguia’s last fight against the old-timer Gabe Rosado (26-14-1, 15 KOs), he outworked the veteran to win a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night on November 13th at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The scores were 118-110, 117-111, and 119-109.
Munguia was hurt during that fight at times and badly bruised over his left eye.
The way Munguia looked in that contest, he’d be food for Jermall Charlo, Gennadiy Golovkin, Demetrius Andrade, and possibly two or three contenders as well.
Munguia’s high work rate could be a problem for Derevyanchenko, who hasn’t fought that type of opponent since his 12th round TKO win over Tureano Johnson in 2017.
Derevyanchenko was too slick for Tureano in that fight and dominated him all the way through.
It could prove harder for Derevyanchenko to do that to Munguia, though, because he’s much younger, and he’s not dealing with the wear & tear of fighting Jermall Charlo and Golovkin in consecutive fights the way he is.
Golden Boy Promotions are hoping to get a title shot for Munguia against IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin in 2022. That’s likely the preferred option for them.
However, with Golovkin’s schedule being unclear in 2022, it makes sense for Munguia to face Derevyanchenko to lock him in as the WBC mandatory challenger to Jermall.