By Sean Jones: Trainer Erik Morales says his fighter Jaime Munguia will not only defeat IBF/WBA middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin but also knockout him out when the time comes for the two to mix it up.
Munguia (41-0, 33 KOs) has been pushing for the fight against Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) for the last two years without any success, as GGG has shown interest in throwing a bone to the unaccomplished contender, likely because he’s facing exclusively poor opposition for some strange reason.
Munguia is 26 years old and has been in the professional ranks for ten years, and yet the best wins on his resume were against journeyman Gabe Rosado and the badly undersized Sadam Ali.
Strangely enough, Munguia is ranked high by three of the sanctioning bodies at 160 despite not having fought anyone of quality since moving up to the weight class in 2020. Munguira is currently ranked #1 WBC, #1 WBO, & #6 IBF.
Morales predicts KO for Munguia
“I dare say he would beat him by knockout,” said Erik Morales to Izquierdazo about Jaime Munguia knocking out Gennadiy Golovkin. “Everyone can say what they want,” Morales said, reacting to Golovkin’s former trainer Abel Sanchez said that Munguia couldn’t hang with GGG.
“We haven’t been able to have a strong-level opponent in the last two years, but that doesn’t mean we can’t. Jaime is ready. He has speed, strength, youth, and everything to face whoever he wants,” said Morales.
Munguia’s fights at 160
Gonzalo Gaston Coria
Jimmy Kelly
D’Mitrius Ballard
Kamil Szeremeta
Tureano Johnson
Gary O’Sullivan
Those are weak fringe-level fighters and not worthy for Munguia to be given the high ranking he’s been given by the IBF, WBC & WBO.
Golovkin is turning 41 years old in April, and it’s unknown if he’s ever going to fight another serious opponent again after his recent big payday fight against Canelo Alvarez last September. That’s the fight that Golovkin had been waiting for, laying low for the last four years.
Now that GGG has it, it’s highly questionable whether he’ll bother fighting anyone with a pulse before he retires unless Canelo throws him a bone for old-time’s sake for a fourth fight.
The Mexican native Munguia has had opportunities to fight for world titles against Demetrius Andrade and Janibek Alimkhanuly but has chosen not to take the fights, which has given many boxing fans that he’s just being ramped up by his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions for a cash-out in a similar way as we see with Ryan Garcia.
Munguia should stay away from GGG
“Stay away from GGG. The only one that can give GGG any trouble right now is Canelo,” said Abel Sanchez to K.O. Artist Sports when told that Jaime Munguia wants to fight Gennadiy Golovkin. “It’s going to be difficult to beat Gennadiy Golovkin. I don’t care if he’s 41 years old.
“The one thing you can’t take away from him is that once he hits you, you stay hit. So if you’re not a talent like Canelo, it’s going to be difficult to beat Golovkin.
“I didn’t want the fight because it was a Mexican kid that was going to be ruined, was going to be retired,” said Sanchez about when Golovkin was briefly looking to fight Munguia in 2018.
“He would have been knocked out ugly. Today, he doesn’t need Golovkin. He doesn’t need that kind of beating,” Sanchez said about Munguia.
Obviously, Munguia isn’t going to listen to Sanchez and stay away from Golovkin because of the money he’ll get for that fight is too good for him to avoid continuing to chase the match.
Further, it’s a fight that Munguia might win based on his punch volume rather than talent because Golovkin looked gunshy to the extreme in his loss to Canelo last September. We saw the same thing from Golovkin in his fight with Ryota Murata last April.
Golovkin wasn’t attacking like he used to do, and although he eventually stopped Murata in the ninth round, it wasn’t an impressive performance.
