Ever since he reached a certain level of acclaim, Jaime Munguia has probably been asked “when are you going to fight Canelo Alvarez?” every single day of his life. After bursting onto the scene during HBO’s waning days in the sport, Munguia was established as the logical heir apparent—or at least next Mexican threat—to Canelo. Considering he offered to step and in and face Gennadiy Golovkin in 2018 (and was rejected by the Nevada commission), there’s been the sense for six years now that there is no ceiling to the types of opponents boxing fans could suggest he face.
For the vast majority of those six years, the caliber of opponents chosen for Munguia were closer to the basement than they were the ceiling, as his handlers—including several different trainers—had a different idea for his trajectory. Luckily for Munguia, he’s maintained an enthusiastic fanbase that has packed arenas in various locales in California, Texas and Mexico, unphased by the caliber of opposition and simply thrilled to see him win against almost anybody.
But at 27 years of age and with 43 fights now under his belt, there does seem to be the understanding that even though Munguia is popular enough to milk good gates across two countries in fights that don’t pose much of a threat to him, it’s best for the fighter to start ramping up his resistance. Last June, Munguia emerged victorious against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a bout named Fight of the Year by ESPN, digging deep to survive his first true scare as a professional since his win over Dennis Hogan in 2019. Rather than follow that exhausting 12-round sprint with an easy lap around the track, Munguia took on John Ryder this past weekend. A strategic choice, no doubt, as Ryder represented not only a Top-10 super middleweight, but also Canelo’s most recent challenger, an opportunity to directly measure Munguia against the man whose shadow he’s lived within.
Munguia achieved the best result he could he hoped for, stopping Ryder in nine rounds, knocking him down four times in the process in front of close to 11,000 fans at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, AZ. It should be noted too that while Ryder had discussed his proximity to retirement prior to the bout, and while he’d sustained a substantial pounding from Canelo in his most recent bout, he didn’t present as a husk of himself in the ring either. In fact, just a round prior to Munguia stopping him, Ryder may very well have had his best round of the fight, countering effectively with short right hooks and quick left uppercuts to the body.
This was still a solid version of Ryder, and Munguia showed both improvements and the capacity for new adjustments not previously displayed before. Munguia fought in a lower crouch than he’s typically operated within, and showed improved timing during exchanges, something he acknowledged to Chris Mannix during his post-fight interview on the DAZN broadcast.
“Last time, I was just throwing punches like crazy, but this time, my timing was better. My timing was perfect,” said Munguia.
The joy of watching Munguia fight however is that his imperfections are glaring, but they only serve to create more excitement. While he timed Ryder well for periods of time, when he felt he had Ryder hurt, he retreated to his instincts, swinging wildly looking to end the fight immediately. Munguia got touched during these moment as he tends to, but those moments were more infrequent than they had been in the past—exponentially so in comparison to his brawl with Derevyanchenko during which he was seemingly out on his feet more than once.
“One thing about my gym is, you don’t come to play at my gym. It’s not for play. It’s for real fighters. I want to bring the best fighters there. When they come to my gym I’m really f—— happy,” said Munguia’s trainer Freddie Roach, with whom he reunited prior to this bout, spending over sixty days in Hollywood for camp. “Right now, I want to get him back in the gym, go back and work on what we need to work on. I’m trying to make him a better fighter than he ever thought of. Somebody told me that his speed didn’t look that good today, I said okay, that’s what we have to f—— work on next. But last fight, it was his defense, and all of the sudden he has good defense. Well, he doesn’t really have good defense, he has good offense, which turns into good defense.”
Though there may always be residual frustration about fights he could have taken in years past, Munguia and his team may be feeling justified in the path they’ve taken. The version of Munguia that defeated Ryder is likely the best version of him we’ve seen thus far. Since the beginning of his time in the public eye, Munguia’s main target has always been Canelo, not anyone else, to the point that he wrote an article for ESPN in 2018 literally titled “My Journey To Beating Canelo Alvarez.” Now, Munguia finds himself at the peak of his powers, at or towards the front of a queue of young super middleweights chasing an aging Canelo.
“I believe it will be a great fight for Canelo, for him, for all of us. We want the best at 168, and we expect the best at 168,” said Munguia at the post-fight press conference, before addressing the criticism of his strength of schedule and recent performances. “It’s always great to be humble and be honest with the fans. It’s a great motivation also, when people don’t believe in you. And that’s an answer I wanted to give them, a great fight to answer all the doubts from before, but now, we’re ready.”
He says he’s ready, but of course, scheduling a bout against boxing’s biggest star isn’t as simple as saying you want it. So just in case, like a good trainer does, Roach had his back.
“I hear a lot of noise about who’s next and so forth, but you know, we just beat one of the toughest guys out there,” said Freddie Roach at the post-fight press conference. “Whoever wins up being that (next opponent), is in trouble.”