Jaime Munguia vs. Gary O’Sullivan - January 11, 2020

[Ruthless-RKO]

WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (34-0, 27 KOs) is fighting in two months from now against an opponent still to be determined on January 11 in San Antonio, Texas.

https://www.boxingnews24.com/2019/11/ja ... ntonio-tx/

Following Munguia’s last impressive title defense against Patrick Allotey last September, there was talk that his next fight would be in the middleweight division.

That may not happen though. The 23-year-old Munguia could make a vountary defense of his World Boxing Association title against one of the contenders in the WBO’s rankings.



Munguiao doesn’t have a mandatory challenger

Munguia doesn’t have a WBO mandatory yet. That’ll be determined later this month when #1 WBO Carlos Adames (18-0, 14 KOs) faces #2 WBO Patrick Teixeira (30-1, 22 KOs) in a title eliminator at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Munguia has looked special since winning the WBO 154-lb title last year in STOMPING Sadam Ali in 4 brutal rounds to win the belt in May 2018. The powerful Munguia, who is one of the biggest punchers in the sport, knocked Sadam down four times in the fight. He dropped him two times in round 1, and once in rounds 2 and 4.

Since winning the WBO belt, Munguia has successfully defended it an incredible FIVE times in beating Liam Smith, Brandon Cook, Takeshi Inoue, Dennis Hogan and Patrick Allotey. Munguia is easily the busiest of the world champions in boxing.

Munguia’s wins in 2019 have come against Takeshi Inoue, Dennis Hogan and Patrick Allotey. That’s not a bad list of challengers that Munguia has fought. He’s shown a lot of improvement with each fight that he’s had this year.

Jaime Munguia to be moving up to 160 soon

If Munguia does decide to move up to 160, he would be going after WBO champion Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade. That wouldn’t likely happen right away though, because Munguia’s management will want him to get his feet wet at middleweight before he takes on the unbeaten Andrade (28-0, 17 KO) for his WBO belt.

Munguia’s critics want him to be rushed into an immediate tough fight in his first match at middleweight, and that’s obviously not the way to do it. He’s going to be brought along slowly in the same way superstar Saul Canelo Alvarez was brought along. Even boxing greats like Julio Cesar Chavez, Wilfredo Gomez and Salvador Sanchez weren’t thrown in with the best right away.

If Munguia does move up to 160 for his January 11 fight, then these would be great options for him:

Jeff Horn
Walter Kautondokwa
Liam Williams
Kanat Islam
Immanuwel Aleem
Hugo Centeno Jr.
Anthony Fowler
Brandon Adams

[Ruthless-RKO]

Who would you like to see him fight in Jan?

[polecateddy]

Tim Tsyzu could be a marketable fight.

[Woldemar]

Who would you like to see him fight in Jan?

Winner Adames vs Teixeira

[1okstcsb]

Austin Trout he gives EVERYONE a good fight.

[Woldemar]

Austin Trout he gives EVERYONE a good fight.

Lara beat him as well.

[jujigatame]

Ideally? Lara.

Realistically? Trout.

[KiwiRider]

I just hope his TBA in January is half decent. It's a bit of a boxing drought after Christmas. Be nice to have a fight so early in the month.

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

Trout might win that

[Ruthless-RKO]

Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan [30(21)-3(2)-0] will top the first major fight card of 2020.

According to reports the Cork light middleweight will trade leather with non other than reigning WBO light middleweight world champion Jaime Munguia [34(27)-0] next.

Respected ESPN reporter Fernando Barbosa claims the pair will square off as early as January 11 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, on January 11, with the fight being broadcast live on DAZN.

It’s a massive fight for the popular Celtic Warrior fighter, but unfortunately it appears it’s not a clash that will provide the 35-year-old with a chance to fulfill his world title dream.

The reports also suggest Munguia’s light middleweight title won’t be on the line.

It seems the Mexican has finally admitted he has outgrown 154lbs and will vacate as he moves up to middleweight. Apparently O’Sullivan, who has looked extremely destructive since moving the other way, will return to the weight in a bid to try and claim a big scalp.

The middleweight line of thinking is in keeping with what the Golden Boy prospect’s team put out pre and post the Mexican’s latest world title defence. After making a successful fifth defence of his strap with victory over Patrick Allotey in September the champion hinted at a move north on the scales.

“I can’t tell you right now who my next opponent will be. I will likely move up to 160, have two fights and see if we can fight for a world title,” he said after the fight.

Zanfer Promotions CEO Fernando Beltran suggested the same,

“He’s a very active fighter and was good tonight. He would like to return in his fight at 160.”

It’s possibly a double blow for the Pascal Collins trained fighter. ‘Spike’ would have fancied his chances of breaking down a weight drained, Munguia and if he managed to do so would have won a world title.

However, now he will face a fresher, bigger Munguia with a big name scalp rather than silverware at stake.

Regardless, the Cork man will be both confident and motivated. He has been in camp for sometime now and his team have hinted at a ‘massive’ fight on the horizon. There is no doubt victory would bolster the big punching Murphy’s Boxing stars chances of further mega match ups – and there is no doubt that the jury is still out on the young ‘monster’.

The question marks with regard to a fighter, who has won six world title fights by the age of 22, mainly arise because of Dennis Hogan.

The Kildare man fought Munguia in Mexico in the Spring and most argue he was denied a deserved historic victory.

The widely held opinion is ‘The Hurricane’ out pointed the local star only to be denied by poor judging.

Hogan is back in world title action in December 7, when he challenges Jermell Charlo for the WBC world middleweight title at the Barclays Center.

Interestingly enough he was talking about making a first defence against ‘Spike’ pre his Munguia April fight – and if both win over the winter an Ireland hosted middleweight world title fight may be an option.

https://www.irish-boxing.com/spike-osul ... medium=rss

[margaret thatcher]

Ya, thought Gar really impressed in the Lemieux fight.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ya, thought Gar really impressed in the Lemieux fight.

He has fought since then hasn’t he?

[jujigatame]

Ugh, I thought we'd at least get Trout. This is a step down from even that.

[1okstcsb]

I think this shows he will NOT fight Andrade when Munguia goes for a 160 pound Title, Trout or Lara would have been good preparation to fight Andrade (But his management likely sees them as too High Risk) He said he will fight at 160 starting with O'Sullivan and the WBO has a rule when a Champion moves up they become the #1 Contender, meaning he can Have The Title Shot at Andrade IF he wants it, Andrade's previous #1 Contender Steve Butler Opted to Fight Murata Instead, So this will be the Second #1 Contender who will duck Andrade, Rigo had this problem for a long time.

[Stuarty]

Trout might win that

He'll be like a fish out of water

[Ruthless-RKO]

Fight now confirmed.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Carlos Adames, Patrick Teixeira now fighting for WBO interim title

Junior middleweight contenders Carlos Adames and Patrick Teixeira had the stakes raised for their upcoming fight on Tuesday.

Adames and Teixeira are scheduled to fight on the Oscar Valdez-Andres Gutierrez undercard at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Saturday (ESPN+, 6:30 p.m. ET), but instead of the bout being a world title eliminator for the right to become the mandatory challenger for titlist Jaime Munguia, as originally planned, the bout was sanctioned Tuesday to be for the WBO interim title, with the winner likely to be elevated to the full titleholder at next week's WBO convention in Tokyo.

That is because Munguia announced last week that he is moving up to the middleweight division for his next fight, which will come against Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan on Jan. 11 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Munguia has not officially vacated his 154-pound title, which is why Adames-Teixeira is for the interim belt, but Munguia probably will formally vacate during the convention, which runs from Monday through Thursday.

"It doesn't change what will happen in the ring on Saturday night, but obviously, given the stakes being raised, the winner of the fight is going to be in a great position and to eventually be recognized as a world champion and rightly so," Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti told ESPN.

The Robert Garcia-trained Adames (18-0, 14 KOs), 25, of the Dominic Republic, is 5-0 with three knockouts since he debuted for Top Rank in May 2018. He is the favorite.

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who said he expects the winner to be elevated to the full titleholder during next week's convention, told ESPN that if Adames wins he plans to bring him to Australia to make his first defense in the spring against Tim Tszyu (14-0, 10 KOs), 25, of Australia. Tszyu, who is slated to face countryman Jack Brubaker (16-2-2, 8 KOs), 28, on Dec. 6 in Sydney, is the son of Hall of Fame former undisputed junior welterweight world champion Kostya Tsyzu.

Teixeira (30-1, 22 KOs), 28, a southpaw from Brazil, has won four fights in a row since his only defeat, a second-round knockout to former world title challenger Curtis Stevens in May 2016. Now he is stepping up again against a formidable opponent.

The decision that the fight would be for the interim belt came on the same day that Munguia and O'Sullivan met face to face at a news conference to kick off the promotion for their 12-round fight, which will headline a Golden Boy card on DAZN.

"I'm excited to be moving up to 160 pounds, where they say that some of the most important fighters in boxing are," Munguia said at the news conference, referring to elite middleweights such as champion Canelo Alvarez and titleholder Gennadiy Golovkin. "I have a very tough fighter in front of me, Gary O'Sullivan, who's very tough. If I want those bigger fights, then I have to demonstrate that I'm worthy of that against this guy. So I have to do my best in order to rise up in the rankings. I look forward to delivering a great fight for Mexico."

Munguia (34-0, 27 KOs), 23, of Mexico, made five 154-pound title defenses, but struggles with weight led to the decision to move up to 160 pounds.

"He gives everything in the ring, and he concentrates 100 percent at what he does," said Erik Morales, the Hall of Famer who won titles in four divisions and now trains Munguia. "For me it's also a big challenge because he is a novice who has to work on a lot of things, and we have to prepare for a very tough opponent. We have to make a lot of fixes and changes. The goal is to one day fight big fights against big fighters, and we have a lot of things to work on before that."

O'Sullivan (30-3, 21 KOs), 35, of Ireland, will be a huge underdog because the three times he stepped up in opposition he lost badly, a near-shutout decision to two-division world titlist Billy Joe Saunders in 2013, a seventh-round knockout to top contender Chris Eubank Jr. in 2015 and by first-round destruction to former titlist David Lemieux on the Alvarez-Golovkin II undercard in September 2018. He has won two low-level fights since the blowout loss to Lemieux.

"I'm really excited about this, and I'm looking forward to it a lot," O'Sullivan said. "Jaime Munguia is a great fighter. I'm very motivated by this challenge. He's a young world champion, undefeated. For many, this is the stuff of dreams to come to his backyard and fight the undefeated champion of the world. I've never felt the more motivated in my career."

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

The good thing is that Munguia is on DAZN.

[drunkenpiper36]

I like this kid Munguia. I hope he develops into one of boxing’s best. ( fingers crossed. )

[boxing_rocks]

Wow. People are high on Munguia. To me, he is pretty limited, so this sounds like a 50/50 fight.

[KiwiRider]

I like Spike,and good on him for earning a crust.
Problem is, we kinda know what his chin can take, and I belive Munguia's power exceeds that.
Spike could well outbox for a while, I just think he gets clipped flush, and finished off as soon as he takes the foot off the gas.
35 years old now, and Munguia is 12 years his junior, plus the height and reach.

[apollo creed]

Wow. People are high on Munguia. To me, he is pretty limited, so this sounds like a 50/50 fight.

On paper Munguia should have an easy night but many people thought the same when Munguia was going to fight Hogan.

[MATTPRENTICE]

Wow. People are high on Munguia. To me, he is pretty limited, so this sounds like a 50/50 fight.

Taking the title off Ali on HBO was both the best and worst thing to happen in his career. He really could have used another couple years before moving up to the top level.

[Ruthless-RKO]

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