By Dan Ambrose: Dmitry Bivol is no longer being considered for unbeaten middleweight contender Jaime Munguia’s next fight on June 10h on DAZN.
Munguia’s promoter Fernando Beltran says WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) isn’t “very popular,” so they’re not interested in fighting him now. You can say the same thing about Munguia as well.
The perception boxing fans have of Munguia is that he’s been slowly ramped up for a big cash-out by his management. Munguia has faced subpar opposition throughout his career, giving the impression to some that he’s a phony, manufactured fighter like Ryan Garcia.
Unfortunately, Munguia is not very popular because he’s never stepped it up in his career against quality opposition instead of the ham & eggers with whom he’s padded his 41-0 record.
Jaime Munguia’s last seven opponents:
- Gonzalo Gaston Coria
- D’Mitrius Ballard
- Jimmy Kelly
- Gabe Rosado
- Kamil Szeremeta
- Tureano Johnson
- Gary O’Sullivan
Mungui’s promoter targets former middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin, and talks with his promoter Tom Loeffler have already begun.
Beltran says Munguia has been interested in fighting Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) his entire career, and he’d be happy if he could finally face him.
“We are not thinking of Bivol for June 10th”, Fernando Beltran said to Izquierdazo. “Jaime has a date with DAZN for June 10th. Bivol is not very popular.
“We would love to fight with him in the future, but we are talking about the two weight classes above. We would fight with him [Dmitry Bivol] if nobody else wants. If someone runs away from him, we will face him.
“We are trying to get a fight with Gennady Golovkin for June 10th. We have been talking to [Golovkin’s promoter] Tom Loeffler. We want to close it soon. We have looked for that fight since a long time ago,” said Beltran.
Golovkin doesn’t have an opponent after recently vacating his IBF & WBA 160-lb titles after being ordered to defend them against Erislandy Lara and Esquiva Falcao. It’s believed that Golovkin gave up the belts because there wasn’t any network interest in those fights.
The big question is whether DAZN would be willing to pay Golovkin the kind of money that he’s been accustomed to getting for his fights to face the 26-year-old Munguia. He won’t likely take this match-up if it’s not worthwhile for him.
From DAZN’s standpoint, it’s questionable whether Golovkin vs. Munguia would move the needle in bringing in new subscribers to their streaming platform.
Golovkin turns 41 on April 8th, and he’s only fought a small handful of times in the last five years, which has hurt his popularity. What’s arguably hurt Golovkin’s popularity more than just his inactivity is the opposition he’s faced. Instead of facing the type of fighters that the fans have wanted GGG to face, he fought these guys:
- Kamil Szeremeta
- Steve Rolls
- Ryota Murata
- Sergiy Derevyanchenko
If Golovkin had instead fought Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, David Benavidez, Caleb Plant & Janibek Alimkhanuly, his popularity would still be high as long as he won those fights.
