Jaime Munguia vs D’Mitrius Ballard – Results & Post Fight Report

Jaime Munguia did as expected, and thrilled his home crowd at Plaza Monumental in Tijuana, Mexico, with a dominant third round stoppage of D’Mitrius Ballard.

Munguia kept in the hunt for world honours at middleweight, having served as WBO ruler at super welterweight, and he defended his WBO Intercontinental strap with victory here. The 25-year-old home favourite is ranked number one with the WBO at 160 pounds, and, with current champion Demetrius Andrade likely to have to move up in weight, Munguia could well be competing for vacant crown in the near future. First though, he had to take care of Maryland based Ballard, who came into this one unbeaten in 22 previous contests.

This was easy work for Munguia, but the beginning was relatively quiet. After a first round with little action, but the second saw the writing started to find the wall, as Munguia shook up Ballard with a left hook and a four punch combination. The ending wasn’t long in coming, and Munguia fired off a raking left hand that wobbled Ballard badly in the third, and he needed no second invitation to swarm all over the American, firing off a volley of punches to force Ballard face first to the canvas. He bravely beat the count, but sent distress signals to his corner, and a follow up attack on the resumption forced the referee to intervene.

The win saw Munguia move to 39-0, and the plan must now be for him to secure a world title in a second weight class at least. Munguia is also ranked number one with the WBC as well as the WBO, so a contest with Jermall Charlo could likely be an option too.

In a wild contest at lightweight, William Zepeda remained unbeaten with a third round knockout win against Luis Angel Viedas. Both men were down in round two, and Viedas was down again in the third. He beat the count, but Zepeda started to unload when the fight continued, and as Viedas was taking a knee, the beating continued, and Zepeda landed a body shot while Viedas was down. Instead of ruling a disqualification, the referee simply counted Viedas out.

Diego Torres Nunez also remained unbeaten, taking a ten round points win at super lightweight against Jonathan Escobedo Martinez. Two scores of 97-92, and a third at 98-91 ensured the Mexican made it 14 straight wins.

Former flyweight world champion Arely Mucino returned home, and scored a second round stoppage win against Naylea Gil Sanabria in their scheduled eight rounder. At featherweight, Rafael Espinoza needed just 97 seconds to see off Alie Laurel, who was down twice in all.

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