Jaime Munguia and his opponent Bruno Surace weighed 169.1 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in for their 10-round catchweight fight this Saturday, December 14th, at the Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico. The event will be shown live on ESPN+ at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
(Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank)
Saturday’s Fight Card: ESPN+ Preview
The recently beaten former WBO junior middleweight champion Munguia (44-1, 35 KOs) is looking to pick up an easy win in his showcase against France’s non-top tier fighter Surace (20-0-2, 4 KOs).
This is a step backward for the 28-year-old Munguia from his last contest against Erik Bazinyan on September 20th. It’s possible that given the short time frame, Munguia’s promoters didn’t want to match him against a fighter at the level or better than Bazinyan for fear of him getting beaten.
In the co-feature weights, super bantamweight contender Alan Picasso (30-0-1, 16 KOs) weighed in at 125.9 lbs, and his opponent Yehison Cuello (13-2-1, 11 KOs) weighed in at 124.6 lbs for their 10-round contest.
Weights for Saturday’s Event on ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET.
– Jaime Munguia 169.1 vs. Bruno Surace 169.1
– Alan Picasso 125.9 vs. Yehison Cuello 124.6
– Jorge Garcia Perez 154.3 vs. Kudratillo Abdukakhorov 158.2
– Sebastian Hernandez 123.6 vs. Sergio Martin Sosa 123.2
– Christian Islas Roldan 130.7 vs. Juan Anacona 129.5
Munguia lost for the first time in his 11-year professional career on May 4th against Canelo Alvarez. The defeat was long overdue, but Munguia hadn’t been fighting high-level opposition, which protected him. Fans believe Munguia was protected all these years to get a big-money cash-out fight against Canelo.
Rebuilding Munguia: The Road to Rematch?
Now that it’s happened, the process begins again, with Munguia matched against lesser fighters, hoping to get ranked to the #1 spot for a lucrative rematch against Canelo. If that’s the gambet, it’s off-putting, but when you see Munguia matched against Surace and Bazinyan in back-to-back fights, you can only draw that conclusion.
“He is a strong fighter. He throws a lot of combinations. We have to be careful with that. I’ve studied him, and I’m confident of the work that we have done. I will walk away with my hand raised in victory,” said Munguia.
“If I knew in what round I could knock him out, I would bet all of my money on that. But I don’t know. It’s uncertain. I can tell you now with full certainty that I will be looking for the knockout.”
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