Jaime Munguia faces criticism ahead of Saturday’s fight

Jaime Munguia knows he is on the hot seat with his fans ahead of facing Gonzalo Coria on Saturday.

This Saturday, Golden Boy Promotions returns to Guadalajara, Mexico inside the Arena Astros for an event streaming live on DAZN. Middleweight contender Jaime Munguia (40-0, 32 KOs) will finish 2022 by facing Gonzalo “El Mago” Coria (21-5, 8 KOs) from Argentina. This bout will take place at the catchweight of 165 pounds as Munguia wants to have the flexibility of fighting either at middleweight or super middleweight.

The career of Munguia hadn’t lived up to the expectations initially set by Zanfer Promotions when he was coming up the ranks and was pinged as the heir to Mexican great Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. It wasn’t long ago when Munguia was the fighter no one had heard of that was being offered up as a replacement for Canelo against Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin when a positive result for a banned substance came up which suspended the current undisputed super middleweight champion. Although the Nevada State Athletic Commission disapproved of Munguia as an opponent for GGG, it ended up being the press he needed to introduce himself to American boxing fans.

After beating Sadam Ali for the WBO super welterweight title in 2018, Munguia came away with a few narrow & debatable decisions while continuing to face tough opponents, but not of the quality that Munguia should be facing at that point of his career. After every fight, there were promises of the big names on the horizon, but when the bell rang to begin round one in a fight, it wasn’t against the fighters that everyone wanted Munguia to be in there with.

Jaime Munguia faces Gonzalo Coria on Saturday in Mexico and streaming live on DAZN

To his credit, earlier this year, Munguia set out to finally face a big name which was WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (32-0). Still, after both fighters agreed to fight, the networks couldn’t iron out their piece of the puzzle, and the fight fell apart. Munguia ended up fighting Jimmy Kelly in June, but right before that fight, I spoke to him about his 2022 plans. During that conversation, Munguia assured me that by the end of the year, he would be staring across the ring at a big name or champion.

It was announced before Halloween that Munguia was scheduled to fight Coria, and the boxing fans did not have it. A hint that Munguia knew the backlash would come hot and heavy was that after announcing it on his Instagram page, he disabled the ability to post comments. He knew that it wouldn’t be widely accepted and wasn’t ready to hear about it in the comment box on his post. But let’s not be too hard on the fighter, as he has Zanfer Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions who handle his career, and they have to share some of the blame for their fighter not facing a marquee name on Saturday.

During a recent call with the 26-year-old Munguia, the question had to be asked right up front as the people wanted to know. What is going on with him and his lack of marquee opponents? Munguia told FanSided, “Just like I mentioned, we were trying to finalize a big fight before the end of the year. I wanted to fight (Jermall) Charlo, but it didn’t happen for one reason or another. Afterward, we looked at John Ryder & Danny Jacobs. I was training to fight John Ryder, but he signed up for another fight. I thought I wouldn’t fight again this year but thank God I was given this opportunity to stay active. I look forward to the beginning of 2023 to fight against a big name or for a title.”

Although he chose to dance around the question, I don’t believe that Munguia doesn’t want the big fights but more so those around him choosing to continue with these lesser opponents as much as they can. Munguia is a great person with the fans at arenas, as I’ve seen him countless times signing autographs and taking pictures until the last person was done. Because of that, the people want to see him in big fights but have run out of patience, even if he is a great guy.

At this point, it is what it is, and Munguia has Coria, which again, will be at 165 pounds. Munguia mentioned not having an issue making 160 or 168 and is ready to take on any opportunity available at whichever weight class. With Coria, he knows that the southpaw throws a lot of punches and will make it an interesting fight. He has trained hard to prove to everyone that he is ready for that next step. One thing to note about Coria, he fought the current WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly (13-0) and lost by second-round KO. Is this the reason why he is fighting Munguia? Is there any pressure to outperform the champ? Munguia said, “Honestly, I don’t have any pressure. I know he knocked him out in the second round, but I will simply do my job to win the fight.”

For the eighth time, the legendary Mexican warrior Erik Morales will be in Munguia’s corner. That combo of Morales and Munguia has seen him clean up some of his faults and has noticeably increased the confidence in which he fights.” I think we have advanced a lot and have grown. We are always learning and are anticipating the night that we fight for a title” said the middleweight contender from Tijuana, Baja California, MX.

Munguia is ready to show off the best version of himself and once again mentions he is ready for the big fights. Speaking of which, Munguia is currently ranked #1 with the WBO, #2 with the WBC, and #3 with the WBA & IBF. Given that information, the last question would be who he would like to face for the title since he is ranked high with all of the sanctioning bodies? Munguia did not hesitate and said, “Out of all of them, I would like an opportunity at the WBC title against (Jermall) Charlo.” Let’s hope this happens, as there isn’t anyone in boxing who wouldn’t be excited to see how that matchup would unfold.