Liam Smith has disappointing personal knowledge of how difficult it can be to deal with Jaime Munguia’s unusual offensive output.
Mexico’s Munguia overwhelmed Smith, dropped the former WBO junior middleweight champion in the sixth round and comfortably beat him on all three scorecards in July 2018 at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Smith left the ring that night with a real respect for Munguia, who remains unbeaten almost 5½ years later.
Liverpool’s Smith is also quite familiar with John Ryder, the capable British southpaw who will meet Munguia in their 12-round, 168-pound bout Saturday night at Footprint Center in Phoenix. London’s Ryder gave Smith’s younger brother, Callum, a difficult fight in November 2019, when Callum Smith won a debatable 12-round unanimous decision at Echo Arena in Liverpool.
Most handicappers have made Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) at least a 3-1 favorite to defeat Ryder (32-6, 18 KOs), yet Liam Smith thinks Ryder can pull off an upset in front of what figures to be a decidedly pro-Munguia crowd at the home arena of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. The most important factor for Ryder, according to Liam Smith’s scouting report, is to throw more punches than usual against the aggressive Munguia, who will fight for the first time with renowned trainer Freddie Roach in his corner.
“I think it’s a good fight, especially at this stage in both careers,” Liam Smith told Boxing News during an interview posted to its YouTube channel Friday. “Ryder’s coming off the back of good performances – you know, Canelo, Daniel Jacobs and stuff. Munguia, I just, you know, I like Munguia a lot. I know I’ve boxed him, but I just like the way he just like no f***s given, really, you know, doesn’t hold back, throws a thousand punches.
“I think it’s a good fight at both stage of careers. Is Munguia really a 168? It’ll be interesting to see. Ryder’s tough enough. I just think if John can go with Munguia and throw more punches, you know, we all know Ryder is solid enough, he’s got a good enough chin. It’ll be hard for Munguia to budge him, but Munguia can throw enough punches to maybe get to John. I think if John can up his output a little bit more, he’s got a massive chance.”
Ryder, 35, will fight for the first time since he went the distance during a 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat to Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez last May 6 at Akron Stadium in Zapopan, Mexico, just outside of Alvarez’s hometown of Guadalajara. A resilient Ryder got up from a fifth-round knockdown and made the remainder of their bout reasonably competitive, yet Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) still won by scores of 120-107, 118-109 and 118-109, and retained his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles.
Munguia, 27, is also well rested after winning a brutal battle against Ukraine’s Sergiy Derevyanchenko last June 10 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
The Tijuana native dropped Derevyanchenko (14-5, 10 KOs) with a body shot in the 12th round and won their closely contested slugfest by slim margins on all three scorecards (115-112, 114-113, 114-113). If not for the aforementioned knockdown, Munguia-Derevyanchenko, which BoxingScene.com voted its “Fight of the Year” for 2023, would’ve resulted in a majority draw.
DAZN will stream Munguia-Ryder worldwide as the main event of a four-fight stream (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.