TIJUANA, Mexico – Super middleweight contender Jaime Munguia’s busy 2024 campaign will culminate with a homecoming soccer stadium clash against Bruno Surace on December 14 at the Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico.
The event will be co-promoted by Top Rank and Zanfer Boxing and air on ESPN+.
Munguia (44-1, 35 KOs) kicked off the year in January by stopping John Ryder, a feat Saul “Canelo” Alvarez couldn’t accomplish last year. Munguia scored four knockdowns and a ninth-round TKO win in his first fight with Hall of Fame coach Freddie Roach to set up a Cinco de Mayo weekend showdown against Alvarez. Munguia was competitive in the contest and won some rounds but suffered his first career knockdown and a unanimous decision loss to the super middleweight king. Alvarez claimed afterward he carried his countryman and didn’t press the action to score the stoppage.
After the Alvarez fight, Munguia, 28, a former junior middleweight titleholder, reunited with longtime trainer, Hall of Fame fighter and fellow Tijuana native Erik Morales and scored a 10th-round knockout win against previously unbeaten Armenian contender Erik Bazinyan in September.
Surace (25-0-2, 4 KOs) is a 26-year-old from Marseille and hasn’t fought outside of France since making his pro debut in 2016. The six-foot fighter last fought as a middleweight in December of 2023 and scored a 12th-round TKO win over Jhon Jader Obregon.
The event marks the first time since September 1998, when Erik Morales knocked out Junior Jones, that Top Rank has promoted an event in Tijuana.
Zanfer is currently in the process of finalizing the co-featured bout, which could feature Luis “Pantera” Nery or Alan “King David” Picasso. Also set to fight on the card are Jorge Garcia Perez (31-4, 26 KOs), Sebastian Hernandez (17-0, 16 KOs), and David Potrero (17-1-1, 10 KOs).
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.
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