WHEN Jaime Munguia vs Bruno Surace was officially announced in November it’s safe to say everyone thought it was a foregone conclusion.
Munguia was recognised as one of the best super-middleweights in the world whose only defeat in 45 fights came against his fellow Mexican Canelo Alvarez. Surace had not beat anyone of note and scored four knockouts in 27 fights. Any thought of an upset seemed foolish.
In round two at the Estadio Caliente in Tijuana the inevitable seemed to kick in when a short left hook from Munguia put Surace down for the count. The Frenchman got back on his feet but continued to take damaging shots as the rounds progressed.
Another Munguia attack in the sixth finished with a split second where nothing happened, and it was then Surace took the chance and threw his greatest punch – a right hand that put Munguia on his back – and that was all she wrote. The biggest upset of the year arrived in front of the Mexican’s fans and with only 17 days left in 2024.
This summer it was a surprise to see the 28-year-old sign a multi-fight co-promotional deal with Top Rank after working with Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions for 16 fights. This week De La Hoya is in Riyadh, along with a number of boxing’s big players, to take in the world heavyweight title rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.
Yesterday, Boxing News grabbed a quick word with the former multi-weight world champion to get his thoughts on Munguia’s loss to Surace.
“Very unfortunate,” he said.
“It’s one of those cases where a lot of us fighters tend to not focus on the job at hand in front of us because we feel there’s a better and bigger prize moving forward. I think he overlooked his opponent and he got caught unfortunately. But I think Jaime Munguia will be back better, stronger than ever.”
