Jaime Munguia (43-1, 34 KOs) and Erik Bazinyan (32-0-1, 23 KOs) successfully made weight on Thursday at their weigh-in for Friday’s 12-round main event, live on ESPN from the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
(Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank)
The former WBO junior middleweight Munguia recently joined Top Rank, and they’re hoping to turn him into a star. Munguia, 27, suffered his first career defeat, losing to Canelo Alvarez last May. It was a decisive win for Canelo, but still competitive.
Munguia must win this fight against the unbeaten Bazinyan and look good in doing so because if he loses, it’ll signal that he’s not destined to hold a world title at 168.
Friday’s event will be shown live on ESPN and ESPN+ beginning at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.
In the co-feature bout on Friday, 2020 Olympic heavyweight silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr. (10-0, 10 KOs) weighed in at 232.6 lbs, while his opponent Joey Dawejko (28-11-4, 16 KOs) came in at 244.1 lbs for their eight-round fight. Torrez Jr., a short heavyweight at 6’2″, will be looking to keep his perfect knockout streak going.
Complete weights
– Jaime Munguia 167.7 vs. Erik Bazinyan 167.9
– Richard Torrez Jr. 232.6 vs. Joey Dawejko 244.1
– Emiliano Fernando Vargas 139.2 vs. Larry Fryers 138.2
(ESPN+, 6:15 p.m. ET/3:15 p.m. PT)
– Charly Suarez 129.4 lbs vs. Jorge Castaneda 129.1
– Alan Garcia 137.3 vs. Ricardo Fernandez 137.2
– DJ Zamora 130.7 vs. Gerardo Antonio Perez 133.2
– Steven Navarro 115.2 vs. Oscar Arroyo 114.4
– Jorge Garcia Perez 156.2 vs. Ilias Essaoudi 156.6
– Sebastian Hernandez 120.4 vs. Yonfrez Parejo 125
“I think now we’re going to find out who is Jaime Munguia? Is he a guy from Mexico who had a great record who parleyed that into a fight against Canelo, or can he be a champion in multiple weights? I think based on his style, yes,” said Mark Kriegel to Top Rank Boxing.
This isn’t the fight that will show what kind of fighter Munguis is because Bazinyan isn’t one of the talented super middleweights. The fights that will show whether Munguis is a keeper for Top Rank are against Osleys Inglesias, Christian Mbilli, Caleb Plant and Edgar Berlanga.
“Taking Canelo the distance, did it improve his game? If so, is that confidence booster a technique booster?” said Kriegel. “Now, we find out. The ingredients are there for an action fight, but Bazinyan has as much to prove, if not more, than Munguia.
“How good is he really? You don’t exactly know,” said Kriegel.
“Erik Bazinyan is a come-forward, aggressive fighter, and that’s what makes this fight fun because both guys are great offensive fighters, but neither guy is great defensively. So, it’s going to be a firefight,” said Bernardo Osuna.
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