This Saturday, December 14, Mexican boxing reclaimed its rightful place on the world stage with Jaime Munguia in action against the journeyman Bruno Surace at Estadio Caliente in Tijuana. This super middleweight attraction will also be on live at Sky Sports Main Event.
Here are the predictions I have for the Munguia vs Surace bout before this fight heads down to Mexico.
Munguia, the former WBO super welterweight champion is treading a familiar trail that many fighters have followed in the past. It is talking of the post-Canelo comeback. Munguia, like many others, is trying to rebuild his career after being knocked out by one of Mexico’s best, Saul Alvarez. That is a phase of success and failure for anyone that has worked through it.
Breaking down the post mortem of each of the 66 fights in which Canelo has participated would turn this word count into something that might scare even Tolkien himself, so let us be merciful. Alvarez however, the last 10 of his fight wins have seen the opponents he faced carry on as follows.
Sergey Kovalev: One victory and one defeat over five years against weak teams.
Callum Smith: Defeated Richard Post and Julio Cesar Chavez, Sr., then stepped up to light heavyweight and lost to Artur Beterbiev. Had a comeback fight two weeks ago.
Avni Yildirim: Lost to Jack Cullen. Subsequently it returned to the level of German domestic.
Billy Joe Saunders: The injury that arose from the Canelo fight, the fractured eye socket, has kept him out of the ring for three years.
Caleb Plant: Undercard knockout of the subdivision: Anthony Dirrell is a knockout; versus a loss to David Benavidez.
Gennady Golovkin: Retired.
John Ryder: Defeated by Munguia and then retired.
Jermell Charlo: Haven’t been in a fight for about a year and a half now.
Munguia: Debated with Erik Bazinyan in September.
Edgar Berlanga: TBA to think that he only lost to Canelo in September.
As we saw in that sample size, no one in recent years has CHAMPIONSHIP after being swallowed by the ‘Canelo’. So preparing to fight the world’s most bankable boxer is a great help in one’s financial life. However, in as much as it is a worthy step in your career progression it is detrimental. Out of all those fighters none has gone on to maintain the same level of competition except for Dmitry Bivol who defeated Alvarez.
Of course it needs to be mentioned that Golovkin, Ryder, Kovalev were not the young men when they fought Canelo. That rogue’s gallery could be viewed as a criticism of Canelo’s ever declining level of opposition. But people like Saunders, Smith and Plant were the reigning world champions when the flame-haired phenomdismissed them.
Munguia will have an opportunity to stand out among the other fighters who have fallen to Canelo’s fists in recent years. He is still only 28, he has years left to come back and rebuild. There is clearly talent there as he was a former world champion who had not lost a fight until his fighter interfearnce by Alvarez. What Munguia needs is a good performance to finish a rather up and down year.
Standing in his way in that endeavor is Surace, another French fighter who is as unbeaten as he is inexperienced. ‘Brunello’ is competing outside of his home country for the first time, having only managing his fourth knockout in twenty and seven prior bouts last time out.
It was that 12th-round knock out of the Colombian Jhon Jader Obregon that saw Surace clinch the EBU silver title. This places him in the box seat for an opportunity to challenge for the European championship. That would be a much more friendly path than that Surace has taken. An opponent at the domestic level, and he has not power to knock down an opponent at all. He is a brave man, I will not argue about it.
What this fight means is an opportunity for Munguia to make a charge into 2024. He tried it all against Canelo and it did not work out for him. Now Munguia headlines in his hometown of Tijuana in a fight that offers the right backdrop. Get back to those big ones and the still highly ranked Mexican can reach back to its previous standing.
Munguia vs Surace Fight Odds
Munguia is 1/33 to get the job done on home soil Hee. Martyn Surace has a difficult away game which is why he was offered 10/1. The odds for a draw, which has rarely occurred with Surace getting it twice in his career, are 20/1.
Munguia vs Surace Full Card
Jaime Munguia vs Bruno Surace
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Munguia vs Surace Prediction
Munguia is walking into this bout with a 10 round knockout of Erik Bazinyan in his last fight. His victim in that one was a world ranked fighter something that Surace cannot say he has achieved. From the videos I watched I haven’t seen anything from Frenchman that look like he will be any harder than Bazinyan.
Munguia is likely to do this in round seven, that is why I am going for him. Arguably the Mexican will shine through with this performance and if so you can take him in the rounds seven at 8/1.
