Jaime Munguia’s freefall into irrelevance looks to continue apace, as he tells ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez that he’s turned down the WBO’s recent order to challenge Janibek Alimkhanuly for their middleweight title.
The sanctioning body has yet to reveal who will get the call in his stead. Chris Eubank Jr sits at no. 2 in their rankings, followed by Meiirim Nursultanov and Felix Cash.
Munguia (41-0, 33 KO) insisted that he’s looking to fight Gennadiy Golovkin or Jermall Charlo instead, neither of which are particularly feasible. He’s straight-up not fighting Golovkin next unless “GGG” vacates his belts to avoid a pair of looming mandatory challengers, and while he’s still no. 1 with the WBC despite turning down ordered eliminators against Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Carlos Adames, Charlo’s status is currently in limbo and Adames is the interim champ.
I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the WBC make Munguia the mandatory challenger anyway since Mauricio Sulaiman is an amoral windbag who plays favorites, but I’m leaning towards Adames having next crack. That would mean having to negotiate a voluntary defense with Charlo, and we all know how that turned out last time.
Even if you want to heap the blame on Munguia’s team for this garbage, he’s gone along with it every step of the way. In terms of absolutely destroying his own stock this year, he’s right up there with Josh Taylor.