Jaime Munguia hopes to hit the ground running in 2024 after a year that will mark the first one-fight campaign of his career.
The unbeaten former WBO junior middleweight titlist and current super middleweight contender remains in talks for a hoped-for ring return in January. The leading candidate to land the assignment is former interim WBO super middleweight titlist John Ryder, who acknowledged that negotiations are ongoing for a planned fight in the first month of the new year.
“We’re in talks with Jaime Munguia,” Ryder told DAZN while on site for the Joe Cordina-Edward Vazquez IBF junior lightweight title-headlined show in Monte Carlo. “Hopefully January time, into January. Hopefully we can get that over the line soon and have some news for you.”
The fight would serve as a table setter for Munguia (42-0, 33KOs), who remains hopeful to land a higher profile fight versus fellow unbeaten super middleweight Edgar Berlanga (21-0, 16KOs). DAZN is keen on a Munguia-Berlanga fight, to the point where both boxers were discouraged from taking lesser fights in 2023 fourth-quarter dates that are no longer on the table for either.
Boxing Scene has learned that Berlanga plans to return in the first quarter of 2024 after what will also serve as a one-fight run in 2023 for the unbeaten Brooklyn-based Boricua.
Munguia’s lone fight on the year was one of the best of 2023. The 27-year-old Tijuana native scored a dramatic knockdown in the 12th and final round versus former three-time title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko (14-5, 10KOs), whom he outpointed in their instant classic this past June 10 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
The fight came seven months after Munguia’s third and final fight of his 2022 campaign, though all of which came versus underwhelming opposition. A concentrated effort has been made to upgrade his competition level, though talks with Berlanga did not advance far enough to where the fight could made in the fourth quarter of this year.
England’s Ryder (32-6, 18KOs) also fought just once in 2023, though the highest profile appearance of anyone involved in this conversation. The 35-year-old southpaw from Islington, London was valiant in an otherwise lopsided points loss to undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (60-2-2, 39KOs) on May 6 in Zapopan, Mexico, just outside Alvarez’ Guadalajara hometown.
The interim title fight was mandated after Ryder claimed an interim version of the title in a fourth-round injury stoppage of unbeaten countryman Zach Parker last November 26 at The O2 in London.
Alvarez’s win over Ryder satisfied his WBO mandatory title defense, a point emphasized to Golden Boy Promotions during the sanctioning body’s annual convention this past October.
Munguia is the number-one ranked WBO 168-pound contender, but not yet the mandatory challenger. WBO president Franciso ‘Paco’ Valcarcel confirmed that Alvarez’s next mandatory within the organization will not be due until next November, a point that came with the urging for Golden Boy [and Zanfer Boxing] to ensure that Munguia remains active and not just wait out a title shot.
The advice was heeded by Munguia and his co-promoters, given the more productive plans in store for the year ahead.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox