Responding forcefully from his Canelo Alvarez loss to post a Friday night knockout victory, Jaime Munguia is reportedly moving toward taking another fight by year’s end – back home in Tijuana.
Munguia (44-1, 35 KOs) has expressed interest in fighting former super-middleweight title challenger Ronald Gavril (25-3, 20 KOs) of Romania December 14 at Tijuana’s Caliente Stadium, according to a report by ESPN.com’s Salvador Rodriguez.
That would be Munguia’s fourth bout of 2024 after opening the year by stopping veteran former 168-pound title challenger John Ryder of England in January in Phoenix.
Munguia, 27, fought under the Top Rank promotional banner Friday after previously being contracted to Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, and Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum told BoxingScene last week that he was planning to stage a series of fights in Mexico with Munguia serving as a lynchpin attraction.
Top Rank President Todd duBoef told BoxingScene Monday that his company, Munguia and the fighter’s Mexican promoter, Fernando Beltran, expressed joint appreciation over how the Top Rank debut show went, with Munguia capping a closely contested fight against previously-unbeaten Canadian Erik Bazinyan with a 10th-round knockout.
duBoef said he was informed Munguia wanted to stage a homecoming fight in December, adding Top Rank is “in conversations” with Munguia’s team to extend their working relationship “with more talks to follow.”
“They communicated they were very happy with the event, the attention he received, the shoulder programming, the socials, and my team had an incredible experience with them,” duBoef said. “We love that they (took satisfaction) in our content. It was a very positive experience.”
Another Top Rank official said flatly, “The kid (Munguia) wants to be with us.”
While Munguia was held up to some criticism for having some mid-round difficulties with Bazinyan, that tension made for a dramatic fight and he was leading on all three scorecards at the time of the knockout.
“(Arturo) Gatti was flawed, (Miguel) Cotto got hit by right hands … the heavyweight fight we just saw (Saturday between IBF champion Daniel. Dubois and Anthony Joshua) had flaws, but the give and take, and (Munguia’s) willingness to risk to land big punches is compelling and it’s what makes this sport beautiful,” duBoef said.
“If you’re going to take risks, you’re going to get hit. I’d rather see that than a guy doing pirouettes in the ring all night. This was more compelling TV, and you saw it in the arena, with the fans erupting multiple times.”
Arum said previously he’s enthused about taking fights to Mexico so his promotion can effectively capture the passion of the sport’s richest fan base, conveying that generations-deep interest to global television audiences.
In Gavril, Munguia will confront a now-38-year-old fighter who lost a split-decision to then-20-year-old David Benavidez for the WBC super-middleweight title in 2017 before Benavidez handed him a more convincing defeat by unanimous decision five months later.
Gavril has fought far more anonymous foes since, most recently getting in the ring on May 17.