Jaime Munguia To Gennadiy Golovkin: See You In May '23!
Jaime Munguia has heard the public demand calling for more meaningful fights.
The hope on his end is that the next fight will be for a shot at becoming a two-division titlist.
“[Gennadiy] Golovkin, see you in May '23,” insisted Munguia.
The callout came during the post-fight interview for Munguia’s third-round knockout of Argentina’s Gonzalo Coria (21-6, 8 KOs), whom he dropped twice en route to the blowout win Saturday evening at Arena Astros in Guadalajara, Mexico. The fight was met with harsh industry-wide criticism to where most of the pre-fight coverage focused more on his desired fights in 2023. That conversation naturally led to WBA/IBF/IBO middleweight titlist Gennadiy Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) and reigning WBC beltholder Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs).
Tijuana’s Munguia (41-0, 33 KOs) was previously in position to challenge Charlo this past June in the American’s hometown of Houston, Texas. A deal was seemingly reached for a Showtime-exclusive telecast. However, it fell apart at the eleventh-hour when Munguia’s co-promoters, Zanfer Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions, stood firm on DAZN having to be involved in some capacity.
Munguia has actually fought twice since those collapsed talks—a fifth-round knockout of Jimmy ‘Kilrain’ Kelly on June 11 and Saturday’s win over Coria—while Charlo has not fought at all in 2022 or since last June. It is unclear when Charlo will be cleared to return to the ring, which has prompted Munguia to revisit old plans for a new foe.
The first significant mention of Munguia in a relevant fight came when his team sought to land a fight with then-unbeaten Golovkin to help save a May 2018 show in Las Vegas. Golovkin was due to rematch Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, with those plans delayed until September 2018 due to Guadalajara’s Alvarez being dealt a six-month suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission due to testing positive for trace amounts of Clenbuterol earlier that February.
Munguia was viewed as a rising junior middleweight prospect at the time. His competition level wasn’t quite there for the Nevada commission to approve him as an opponent for Golovkin, as the two went their separate ways.
Munguia went on to win the WBO junior middleweight title in a fourth-round knockout of Sadam Ali, cramming five title defenses in a 14-month window. His fourth-round knockout of Patrick Allotey in September 2019 was his last as a junior middleweight titlist, relinquishing the belt later that year to campaign at middleweight.
By that point, Golovkin suffered his first defeat—a majority decision to Alvarez twelve months after the two fought to a draw—to end his unified WBA/WBC/IBF middleweight title reign. He also regained his IBF belt by the time Munguia arrived at middleweight, outpointing Sergiy Derevyanchenko in October 2019 and having made just two title defenses.
One came earlier this year in a ninth-round knockout of Ryota Murata in their April 9 WBA/IBF unification bout in Saitama, Japan. Golovkin then lost a twelve-round decision to Alvarez in their September 17 trilogy bout for Alvarez’s undisputed super middleweight championship in Las Vegas before returning to 160. The move back down to middleweight was met with two mandatory title defenses in waiting—WBA ‘Regular’ titlist Erislandy Lara and IBF number-one contender Esquiva Falcao.
Munguia is undoubtedly qualified to be approved as a challenger for Golovkin anywhere in the world by this point. Whether or not he can skip the line to get him next is another conversation, though one he is ready to have in light of growing criticism over a soft middleweight run to this point.
“I was happy to be in the ring,” Munguia admitted after Saturday’s win before focusing on a more productive 2023 campaign. “This year we couldn’t do Charlo, but hopefully we can do it next year.
“But we know that Gennadiy Golovkin is not signed with (a rival promoter). I would love to meet him in May.”
