By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya hasn’t given up attempting to set up a fight between his fighter Jaime Munguia and Gennadiy Golovkin. Oscar would like a massive amount of pressure to be exerted on Golovkin by the boxing public to fight Munguia, but that’s not going to happen due to the flimsy resume of his fighter.
The painstaking effort that Golden Boy has taken in steering Munguia away from fighters that might beat him like Demetrius Andrade, Jermall Charlo, and Janibek Alimkhanuly has prevented him from becoming a huge name.
Munguia not being popular means that he’s been ignored by Golovkin because he wouldn’t waste his time on an opponent that won’t bring him a huge boatload of money, not after the many millions he made in his three fights with Canelo Alvarez and his massive contract with DAZN.
There’s no way Golden Boy can force Golovkin to fight Munguia because he’s not ranked by the WBA, which is the only belt that GGG holds after he reportedly vacated his IBF title on Wednesday. Munguia is ranked #1 WBC & #1 WBO, but Golovkin doesn’t hold those titles.
Tonight, the Golden Boy boss De La Hoya asked his followers if they would be interested in watching Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) and the unbeaten Munguia (41-0, 33 KOs) fight.
Would you watch a @GGGBoxing vs @jaimemunguia15 and who wins
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) February 9, 2023
Overwhelmingly, fans still want to see it despite the advanced age of the 40-year-old Golovkin, who is coming off a loss to Canelo Alvarez in their trilogy fight last September in Las Vegas.
Still, it’s questionable whether Golovkin will indulge the 26-year-old Munguia, even though it’s perhaps the biggest money fight out there for him, aside from a unification clash against inactive WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo.
It would be difficult for Golovkin to get motivated for a fight with Munguia because he’s done so little in his ten-year professional career. Despite Munguia accumulating an unbeaten record, thanks to the careful match-making by Golden Boy, he’s not mixed it with the best, which has hurt his popularity.
As far as who would win a fight between Golovkin and Munguia, it’s difficult to say. Golovkin’s work rate has been low in his recent fights, and he would have difficulty trying to beat Munguia in a firefight if he’s unwilling to let his hands go like he used to do during his best years.
Munguia defense is poor, and if Golovkin can connect with enough of his big shots, he could score a knockout. Again, it would come down to Golovkin letting his hands go and being willing to do that against Munguia because he would have to be willing to pay the price by being aggressive.
With a net worth of $30 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Golovkin might not be willing to fight hard against Munguia, knowing that he’s already fabulously wealthy and doesn’t need to put himself at risk at this point in his life with all the money he has in the bank.