Jaime Munguia made his successful debut at middleweight as he defeated Gary O’ Sullivan on Saturday night by eleventh round TKO on the first card of the year on DAZN from the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Munguia (35-0, 28 KOs) ate some big shots from O’ Sullivan (30-4, 21 KOs) and was even stung, staggered and wobbled several times in a surprisingly rugged fight.
Spike mostly looked for opportunities to counter his much younger opponent, but the former Light Middleweight champion proved too quick and consistently beat him to the punch, especially with the overhand right.
Munguia’s jab was solid all night and he used it to great effect to literally beat the will out of the Irishman whose legs just couldn’t hold up to the relentless pressure.
Unfortunately, Munguia’s punches also strayed low on several occasions and even cost him a point deduction in the sixth round. Another shot in the seventh put O’Sullivan down but it was correctly ruled a low blow.
A relentless attack from @jaimemunguia15 ends this fight in the 11th round 🛎#MunguiaOSullivan pic.twitter.com/M7HLP69eVG
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) January 12, 2020
Munguia continued to turn up the pressure and was firmly in control of the fight by the eighth round onward behind a stiff power jab that continued to take O’Sullivan’s confidence away.
Before the eleventh round began, O’Sullivan’s corner appeared ready to call the fight but the veteran was having none of it and insisted on continuing.
The bout was over moments later at 2:17 when Munguia stunned O’Sullivan with a right hand followed by a left and then proceeded to unload on him with a series of combinations as his corner threw in the towel.
The Mexican warrior probably made things tougher than they needed to be by instinctively going for the knockout instead of sticking to basic boxing fundamentals to methodically dismantle his man.
While I don’t feel that a rematch is warranted here, it would be beneficial to give Munguia another opportunity to fully acclimate to 160 pounds. He needs to tighten the screws to his fight game a bit more before challenging any of the top 5.
. @Canelo, @GGGBoxing, @FutureOfBoxing …
Jaime Munguia wants ALL THE SMOKE at middleweight 😤 pic.twitter.com/QljCs03A3o
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) January 12, 2020
The 23-year-old called for battles with Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin and Jermall Charlo in the aftermath, whilst he is mandatory challenger to WBO titlist Demetrius Andrade.
O’Sullivan falls to 30-4 with his other losses all coming against stellar competition in Chris Eubank Jr, David Lemieux and Billy Joe Saunders. At 35, he has probably reached his ceiling and I can’t see him getting other opportunities like this in the twilight of his career.
It will be very interesting to see where the former 154-pound titleholder goes from here considering his increasing popularity and growing fan base. He is certainly connected to the right platform with DAZN to get the big fights but should be moved cautiously.
