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A fight at a new weight required a few changes for Jaime Munguia.
The decision to briefly campaign at super middleweight—perhaps for just one night—prompted the unbeaten Tijuana native and his team to find a location more suitable to his preparation needs. The former WBO junior middleweight titlist normally trains at the famed Otomi Ceremonial Center in the mountains of Temoya, Mexico, roughly 10,000 feet above sea level.
Munguia has spent this last camp at The Summit Gym in Big Bear, California in preparation for England’s Jimmy ‘Kilrain’ Kelly (26-2, 10KOs). The bout will mark the super middleweight debut for Munguia (39-0, 31KOs), likely a one-off, though making the decision to train in the U.S. for this weekend’s show at Honda Center in Anaheim, California (Saturday, DAZN, 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT).
“For a fight at this weight, we had to relocate to where we could get better sparring,” Munguia explained to BoxingScene.com. “There wasn’t enough good sparring partners that size in Mexico to keep this camp in Otomi, so we decided to come to Big Bear.
“There is a greater variety of sparring up here, plus I really like training in this area. It’s very peaceful, it’s a beautiful town and a great place to prepare for a fight without any distractions.”
Munguia has never weighed more than 160 pounds for a pro fight, coming in his twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Gabriel Rosado last November also at Honda Center. The 25-year-old sought out as many quality sparring partners as possible for Saturday’s clash with Kelly, who is coming off an upset points win over then-unbeaten Kanat Islam this past February in Plant City, Florida.
Among those who’ve passed through camp to assist Munguia is one-time potential rival Maciej Sulecki. Two dates were assigned to their proposed clash, with Sulecki withdrawing both times due to injury. The two finally got to meet, only for one day but enough for Munguia to gauge how such a fight would have played out with the Polish contender.
“We had the opportunity twice to fight each other. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen but we had the chance to connect for a sparring session up here in Big Bear,” noted Munguia, who is now in his seventh fight under the tutelage of Hall of Fame former four-division titlist Erik Morales. “We only sparred one time, it was 12 rounds but a good experience.”
Sulecki was training for a planned June 18 title challenge of unbeaten WBC middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22KOs). The fight was since postponed due to a back injury suffered by Charlo.
The show goes on for Munguia, who took the fight with Kelly and at a higher wait as a consolation for plans falling through for his own challenge of Charlo. That fight will be revisited down the road, along with other big opportunities at middleweight where he still aims to become a two-division titlist.
“It’s nice to not have to lose those few extra pounds for this fight,” confessed Munguia. “But the plan is to drop back down to middleweight after this. We plan to win our next world title at 160 pounds, without question.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox