From Cherry-Pick to Catastrophe: Munguia’s KO loss at Surace derails career

Jaime Munguia’s decision to fight four times in 2024 may have cost him his sixth-round knockout loss to Bruno Surace on Saturday night at Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico. This was a perfect example of cherry picking gone wrong.

Overconfidence

Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs), the former world super middleweight title challenger. he got greedy, opted to squeeze in a fourth fight this year, and the little-known and unranked Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) took advantage of that to knock out the Mexican fighter in front of his fans in Tijuana. This was to celebrate Munguia, but what a huge disaster.

Munguia looked heavier than usual inside the ring, looking like he hadn’t trained as hard as he had in his previous fights this year against Erik Bazinyan, Canelo Alvarez and John Ryder. Jaime obviously assumed that he was going to defeat Surace with no problems, but man, was he wrong.

You could see that Surace was going to be a problem early on after being knocked out in the second round. The Frenchman got up and landed a flash on Munguia’s head that was like, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ No one in the 168-pound division throws punches like Surace, and Munguia wasn’t seeing the right hands he was throwing.

The only reason the fight didn’t end sooner is because Bruno, 26, wouldn’t let go of his hands. He was mostly defending all of Jaime’s entries, which was understandable. Munguia showed no respect for Surace inside the ring, throwing combinations and looking to impress the Mexican fans with a quick knockout.

Bruno Surace: “I know he is an excellent boxer. So we worked on our counter hitting,” Surace said. “He’s a true warrior. I want to thank you for the opportunity. This was a great experience for me. Middleweight is my true weight class. But we’ll see if it can happen (a second fight against Munguia).

A hype job?

It would be a very bad idea for Munguia’s promoters at Top Rank to set up a rematch with Surace because this guy is smart and will counter him into oblivion in a second fight. Munguia is not good enough to beat this guy. If Jaime had a real skill, it wouldn’t be 100% advertising work; they could put him back with Surace and hope he avenges his loss. Mexican fighter Munguia can’t do it. He was always protected during his 11-year career.

This defeat places Munguia’s career in a bad position; another loss cannot be afforded. His promoters at Top Rank will have to rebuild him, but they must do so in a way that matches him against notable opposition.

Boxing fans already perceive Munguia as a hype job from day one. He was an intentionally tomato-canned fighter his entire career for the sole purpose of getting a big-money fight against Canelo Alvarez. Now that Munguia has finally fulfilled his purpose of getting the Alvarez fight on May 4th earlier this year, his promoters are stuck with a very flawed guy who still needs to be protected as always.

what’s next

– Trevor McCumby
– Edgar Berlanga
– Jermall Charlo
– Bektemir Melikuziev

Jaime Munguia will return 🇲🇽🙏 pic.twitter.com/jur4ltbZCu

— Top Boxing (@trboxing) December 15, 2024