The Mexican King: Canelo Alvarez wins comfortable decision against Jaime Munguia
Canelo dropped Munguia in the fourth round with a right uppercut and dominated the rest of the contest with accurate counter punching
Canelo Alvarez proved he is still the Mexican king of boxing last night with a dominant performance against Jaime Munguia.
Canelo dropped Munguia in the fourth round with a powerful right uppercut before cruising to a 12-round unanimous decision at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and retaining the undisputed super middleweight championship.
Despite making a fast start in the first few rounds by coming forward and letting his hands go, Munguia was unable to hurt Canelo.
Canelo displayed a strong chin to take some flush right hands from Munguia who did his best to overwhelm the champion.
But as the bout progressed it was Canelo landing the more hurtful punches and the Mexican superstar had success when throwing the left hook to Munguia’s body and head.
The ninth round was explosive as Munguia tried to come back into the contest by throwing fast combinations but Canelo took the punches well and returned fire.
In the twelfth Munguia needed a knockout to have any chance of emerging victorious but Canelo closed the show with more accurate power punching.
Overall, Munguia was the aggressor while Canelo alternated between boxing in the middle of the ring and on the back foot where he fought on the counter.
CompuBox showed that Munguia threw 127 more punches than Canelo over the course of the fight but landed 64 punches less than his opponent.
Canelo, 33, improved his professional record to 61-2-2 and will return in September.
After losing to Dmitry Bivol in 2022 and then producing mediocre performances in the Gennady Golovkin trilogy and John Ryder fight, many believed Canelo was on the decline.
However, in his last two bouts against Jermell Charlo and Munguia, Canelo has shown he is still one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
David Benavidez was ringside yesterday yet there is speculation that Canelo will face Edgar Berlanga instead.
Meanwhile, Munguia suffered his first professional loss and was dropped for the first time in his career against Canelo after winning 43 bouts in a row.
Regardless, Munguia is only 27 years old and his wins against John Ryder and Sergiy Derevyanchenko show he still has potential to become elite.
On the undercard of Canelo-Munguia, Eimantas Stanionis returned to the ring after more than two years of inactivity to beat Gabriel Maestre on points and retain the WBA (regular) welterweight championship.
Furthermore, Mario Barrios outpointed Fabian Andres Maidana to retain the WBC Interim welterweight title and Brandon Figueroa knocked out Jessie Magdaleno to keep the WBC interim featherweight title.