By Sean Jones: Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn says he’d be interested in looking at making a fight between Jaime Munguia and Dmitry Bivol this year.
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez told ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez this week that he wants to match his popular unbeaten middleweight contender Munguia (41-0, 33 KOs) against WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs).
Hearn admits that it’s “strange” the way that Munguia’s promoters are matching him because he thinks he would be better off fighting Canelo Alvarez or Gennadiy Golovkin, as those would be competitive fights. But against Bivol, Hearn says Munguia won’t win a round because he’ll be overmatched.
Golden Boy likely hasn’t had any luck in getting Canelo & Golovkin to agree to fight Munguia willingly. Golovkin is 40 now, and there’s a good chance he would lose to Munguia.
Munguia says he wants to fight Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, Bivol & Canelo in 2023. All of those would be excellent fights this year, but we’ll have to see if Golden Boy can make any of those fights.
Gomez says that Munguia could go up to 175 or fight at catchweight against Bivol. Munguia is huge for a middleweight, and some would say that the’s a natural 168-pounder. But with Munguia’s frame, he could easily fight at 175 and look like a genuine light heavyweight.
“Yeah, I’d be happy to look at that fight,” said Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about a fight between Jaime Munguia and Dmitry Bivol.
“Munguia, it’s just strange what they’ve been doing with him. I like him; I think he’s exciting. For me, Munguia against Canelo, Munguia against Golovkin, but Munguia against Bivol, he wouldn’t have a shot at winning a round against Dmitry Bivol.
“If you’ve not shown any previous intentions of being in any dangerous fights, why would you choose Dmitry Bivol? Listen, why not?” said Hearn.
Munguia would be an excellent choice for Bivol to fight in April as a warm-up to get him ready to battle Canelo in September. It’s fair to say that lot of U.S. boxing fans would be excited at seeing Bivol vs. Munguia in the first quarter of this year.
It’s questionable how much effort Hearn will make in setting up a fight between Bivol and Munguia this year. Hearn wants to set up a fight between Bivol and his Matchroom fighter Joshua Buatsi in April, followed by Canelo in September.
