By Dan Ambrose: Highly ranked middleweight contender Jaime Munguia will be facing second-tier fighter Gonzalo Coria in the headliner on DAZN on November 19th at the Arena Astros in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The bout is for 10 rounds rather than 12, but given that Coria was blasted out by Janibek Alimkhanuly in two rounds in 2020, it’s predictable that Munguia will stop him early. If he doesn’t, that will reflect badly on him.
It’s unclear why the 26-year-old Munguia (40-0, 32 KOs) is taking on another lower-level opponent, given that his last two opponents, Jimmy Kelly and D’Mitrius Ballard, were also fringe-level fighters.
With the way Munguia is being matched, you got to wonder why his career is stagnating rather than progressing the way it should.
Munguia is ranked #1 WBO, #2 WBC, #3 IBF, and #4 WBA at middleweight, and he’s not taken on any of the dangerous opposition despite having opportunities to challenge former WBO champion Demetrius Andrade and Janibek Alimkhanuly.
Boxing fans have wanted to see Munguia back in action, but against a good fighter, not another lesser guy like the ones he’s been facing his entire career virtually.
You can argue that the only decent name on Munguia’s nine-year resume is the 36-year-old gatekeeper Gabriel Rosado (26-16-1, 15 KOs).
Like with Vergil Ortiz Jr, at some point, Golden Boy Promotions are going to need to take the training wheels off Munguia and throw him in the deep end to see if he’s got the talent to capture a world title at 160.
Technically, Munguia was a world champion at 154 from 2018 to 2019, but the opposition that he beat was nothing special. Munguia won the WBO junior middleweight belt against career welterweight Sadam Ali, who he had a huge size advantage over in their fight in 2018.
“Everyone has been anxiously waiting for Jaime Munguia’s return to the ring,” said Oscar De La Hoya. “We are excited for him to put on a show for all his fans live in Mexico and worldwide on DAZN so he can end the year with a bang and start 2023 hungrier than ever.”
Hopefully, De La Hoya lets Munguia challenge WBO middleweight champion Janibek for his title next year, but I’m not counting on that happening.
The guy that Munguia and De La Hoya want is the faded 40-year-old IBF/WBA champion Gennadiy Golovkin. It could happen because Golovkin has some tough choices, with him being ordered to face Erislandy Lara and Esquiva Falcao.
