Jaime Munguia and his opponent Bruno Surace weighed in at 169.1 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in for their 10-round catchweight bout on Saturday, Dec. 14 at Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico. The event will be shown live on ESPN+ at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT.
(Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank)
Saturday’s Game Card: ESPN+ Preview
Recently beaten former WBO junior middleweight champion Munguia (44-1, 35 KOs) looks to pick up an easy win in his showcase against France’s non-top-tier fighter Surace (20-0-2, 4 KOs) .
This is a step back for the 28-year-old Munguia from his last fight against Erik Bazinyan on September 20. It is possible that given the short time frame, Munguia’s promoters would not match him against a fighter on the level or better than Bazinyan for fear of him getting beaten.
In the co-feature weights, super bantamweight contender Alan Picasso (30-0-1, 16 KOs) weighed in at 125.9 lbs and his opponent Yehison Cuello (13-2-1, 11 KOs) weighed in at 124.6 lbs for their 10 -round competition.
Weights for Saturday’s event on ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET.
– Jaime Munguia 169.1 vs. Bruno Surace 169.1
– Alan Picasso 125.9 vs. Yehison Cuello 124.6
– Jorge Garcia Perez 154.3 vs. Kudratillo Abdukakhorov 158.2
– Sebastian Hernandez 123.6 vs. Sergio Martin Sosa 123.2
– Christian Islas Roldan 130.7 vs. Juan Anacona 129.5
Munguia lost for the first time in his 11-year professional career on May 4 against Canelo Alvarez. The defeat was long overdue, but Munguia hadn’t fought high-level opposition, which protected him. Fans believe Munguia was protected all these years to get a big money payday fight against Canelo.
Rebuilding Munguia: The Road to Rematch?
Now that that has happened, the process begins again, with Munguia being matched up against lesser fighters, hoping to be ranked the #1 spot for a lucrative rematch against Canelo. If it’s gambit, it’s a deterrent, but when you see Munguia match up against Surace and Bazinyan in back-to-back games, you can only draw that conclusion.
“He’s a strong fighter. He throws a lot of combinations. We have to be careful with that. I’ve studied him and I’m confident in the work we’ve done. I want to walk away with my hand raised for victory,” Munguia said.
“If I knew in which round I could knock him out, I would bet all my money on it. But I don’t know. It’s uncertain. I can tell you now with absolute certainty that I will be looking for the knockout.”
