Jaime Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs) wore down and stopped the old warrior John Ryder (32-7, 18 KOs) in the ninth round on Saturday night in the main event on DAZN at the Footprint Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
Munguia, 27, knocked Ryder twice in the ninth round, causing the corner of the British fighter to throw in the towel to have the fight stopped. Ryder was also down in rounds two and four. He was no match for Munguia tonight.
Now, the question is, will Undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez give Munguia the title shot next for his May 4th date?
Live coverage tonight with results, round by round, and highlights:
In the chief support bout, WBO minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo (9-0, 7 KOs) obliterated Reyneris Gutierrez (10-2, 2 KOs), stopping him in a third-round TKO.
Collazo stunned Gutierrez with a series of hard shots while he was against the ropes. He then dropped Gutierrez. A follow-up flurry of shots from Collazo caused the referee to wave it off. The time of the stoppage was at the 2:37 mark of round three.
Super middleweight prospect Darius Fulghum (10-0, 9 KOs) was extended the full distance for the first time in his three-year professional career, winning a ten round majority decision over Alantez Fox (28-6-1, 13 KOs). The scores were 95-95, 99-90 and 98-92. Fulghum hurt the tall 6’4″ Fox with a right hand in the seventh and came close to getting him out of there with a follow-up flurry. Fox used his veteran experience to weather the storm to make it out of the round.
From the eighth round on, the 27-year-old Fulghum looked sluggish, throwing single hard shots, but unable to put his punches together in combinations or with speed to finish off the exhausted Fox. If Fulghum had thrown a flurry of punches, he might have scored a stoppage in the final three rounds, but it looked like he was focusing on landing one big shot to get the KO, and that wasn’t going to work against this type of fighter. Fulghum had come into the fight with nine straight knockouts to start his career, and he likely thought that Fox would cave in under his power like the weak opposition that he’d been fed. It’s unclear what Golden Boy’s plan is for Fulghum.
If they’re going to try and slowly ramp him up over a ten-year period against medical opposition like they’ve done with Jaime Munguia, looking for that one big payday for him, it might not work. He’s already 27, so he can’t be brought along at a glacial pace the way Munguia had. If another Canelo-esque type fighter comes along that Fulghum can fight in five to seven years, it would be worth it for Golden Boy to match him the way they’ve done with Munguia, keeping him away from quality opposition, but there’s no one on the horizon right now that will be a huge start at 168 to take over for Alvarez.
David Benavidez is heading for light heavyweight soon and perhaps even cruiserweight, so he won’t be around for Fulghum to fight after he’s ready to fight world-class opposition.
IBF world female flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora (13-0, 6 KOs) scored a strange tenth-round knockout of Christina Cruz (6-1). The fight was stopped at 59 seconds of the tenth round. Cruz lost her balance after tripping over the front foot of Fundora, causing her to stumble and turn her back. While Cruz’s back was turned, Fundora continued to punch her until the referee jumped in and halted the contest.
The referee had failed to notice that Cruz had lost her balance from getting her foot tangled with Fundora, so he halted it, believing that she was turning her back due to the punches. In hindsight, the referee should have stopped the action and gotten Cruz turned around and warned Fundora not to punch her in the back of her head after she’d stumbled.
The 41-year-old Cruz was going to lose anyway, but getting stopped due to a blown call by the referee has got to be disappointing. There probably won’t be a rematch ordered, but you can make an argument that there should be. The referee blew it.
#2 WBC super bantamweight contender David Picasso (27-0-1, 15 KOs) beat journeyman Erik Ruiz (17-10-1, 7 KOs) by a ten-round unanimous decision in a fight that was closer than the lopsided scores turned in by the judges. The scores were 99-91, 98-92, and 98-92. The 23-year-old Picasso appeared to suffer a rib injury to his left side in the fourth or fifth rounds from the heavy body shots that the 31-year-old Ruiz was hitting him with.
From the fifth round on, the lanky was on his bike, boxing & moving, trying not to get hit. In the tenth, Ruiz appeared to stun Picasso with a headshot but failed to apply enough pressure to finish him. All in all, Picasso needs a lot of work to compete with upper-echelon guys like Naoya Inoue and Luis Nery. He lacks power and gets hit a lot due to his habit of throwing multiple combinations. He got away with fighting like that in the first rounds tonight against Ruiz but ended up paying the price with a rib injury.
If this had been one of the harder punchers like Inoue, Nery or Marlon Tapales, Picasso would have been meteor dust. Golden Boy will likely wait until those fighters get old before putting Picasso in with them because he has no defense or power.
Unbeaten bantamweight prospect Johnny Canas (3-0, 3 KOs) destroyed William Davis (2–2-1, 1 KO), stopping him in the first round. The bout was halted at 1:04 of the first.
Lightweight Daniel Garcia (8-0, 6 KOs) defeated Daniel Lugo (4-2, 1 KOs) by first-round knockout. Garcia dropped Lugo with a huge right-hand shot. The contest was halted after Lugo got back to his feet. The stoppage occurred at 1:51 of round one.
Super featherweight Gregory Morales (16-1, 9 KOs) defeated Ronal Ron (14-5, 11 KOs) by unanimous decision in an eight-round bout. The scores were 80-72, 79-73, and 78-74.
Featherweight Gael Cabrera (4-0, 2 KOs) beat Miguel Ceballos (2-1, 2 KOs) by a four-round unanimous decision. The scores were 40-34, 39-35, and 39-35.