Home Boxing News Is Jamie Munguia Boxing’s Next Breakout Superstar?

Is Jamie Munguia Boxing’s Next Breakout Superstar?

Jaime Munguia
Jaime Munguia

Saturday night was another huge night for WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia. Fighting in Las Vegas, on the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin II undercard, Munguia was destructive in bombing out overmatched Canadian Brandon Cook.

The T-Mobile Arena was the sight of the one-sided beating and HBO pay per view served as the television host. Fighting on a big pay per view like Canelo vs. Golovkin II only will heighten Mungua’s exposure.

Munguia, who is now 31-0 with 25 knockouts, dropped Cook in the third and another series of punch him stopped his foe moments later as referee Tony Weeks knew to stop the match. Cook drops to 20-2 with 13 knockouts.

At 21 years of age, the sky seems to be the limit for Munguia. He is exciting, charismatic in his own way, and somebody that fans can root for. The young champ from Mexico seemed more focused this contest compared to his rough and tumble scrap with Liam Smith a few months back. In that contest, Munguia had to settle for a unanimous decision win against his tough challenger.

Munguia landed 29% (43 out of 147) of his total punches, and 39% (36 out of 93) of his power shots. Cook meanwhile, never really got anything going, landed just 20% (13 out of 66) of his total punches, and 22% (12 out of55) of his power shots.

Munguia may be a little raw in some areas, as are most young, action fighters, but he knows he is still improving.

“This was part of my development,” said Munguia. “I was not as focused in my last fight. But this time I came more relaxed. I was looking for the knockout too much. But now you’ve seen the results of my work.

One blessing that Munguia has going for him is an experienced trainer in Robert Alcazar, who has worked with such former champions as Oscar Da La Hoya and Jessie Vargas. Alcazar and Munguia train together in a private gym in California, so you can tell they are serious about their business.

“With each fight you will see me getting better,” said Munguia. “I just want to show that I can get better and that I want to face the best, so I can show that I am the best.”

Munguia has already had five fights this year and this marks the second successful defense of his title. Munguia actually broke out onto the scene back in May, as he stopped then-champion Sadam Ali in quick fashion, inside of four rounds, to capture the WBO title he now holds. Before the Ali fight, there was talk of Munguia being in line to face Golovkin believe it or not, as “GGG was looking for an opponent in May following the cancellation of his rematch with Alvarez, as that fight was schedule originally for May of this year.

Now Munguia finds himself a top dog in a very competitive division. At 154 pounds you have some excellent fighters, including champions such as Jermell Charlo (WBC), and Jarret Hurd (WBA/WBC) especially. There are rumors that Hurd could be facing Charlo next, so Munguia will have to remain patient.

But, at 21 years old, time is on his side.