Munguia vs Johnson – Results & Post-Fight Review

Golden Boy held a night of boxing on DAZN at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California, and at the topping the bill was Mexican slugger, Jaime Munguia, who returned to the ring and defended his WBO Intercontinental Middleweight title with a stoppage win over Tureano Johnson. Johnson gave Munguia all he could handle before a massive cut to his lip ruled him out of further action.

Munguia was last seen in January, stopping Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan in eleven rounds in his Middleweight debut, and here, he continued his campaign at 160 pounds against 2008 Olympian Johnson, under the guidance of the legendary Erik Morales.

Johnson went straight to Munguia’s body from the very start, landing with several power shots, and an overhand right also found the mark as the Mexican began lazily. Johnson was landing with several chopping rights to the head of Munguia, but Munguia did eventually have success at the end of the opener with some hurtful combinations.

Johnson was smothering Munguia’s work, and Jaime was desperately trying to make some distance to get off his power punches, and he landed some decent right uppercuts in the second in a much better round for him. Johnson’s intentions were to rush into Munguia, but by the third, Munguia’s movement was much better, and this allowed him to connect with stinging combinations which was sapping the energy out of the Brooklyn based Bahamian.

Johnson’s punches were having much less purchase as early as the fourth, and Munguia was growing in confidence, but he still had to be on his guard as Tureano kept chugging forward and landed some slashing shots towards the end of the frame, his chopping right still his go to punch. Although tiring, Johnson continued to frustrate the former champion at 154 pounds, and he freely was able to find Munguia’s chin with short shots from tight angles as he switched stances with regularity.

The final minute of the sixth saw a horror cut on Johnson’s lip, with a gaping hole appearing as a result of a massive short right uppercut from Munguia, rather than a clash of heads. The doctor agreed to give Johnson the rest of the round, but with 20 seconds remaining, he was never going to be able to remedy what was an awful cut, and the fight was called off.

As the damage was caused by a punch, Munguia was declared the winner via technical knockout at the end of the sixth round. He would have been thankful for the conclusion as Johnson was starting to find a second wind, and was frustrating Munguia on the inside.

“He surprised me with the pressure he gave me from the get-go” said Munguia to DAZN post fight. “I wanted to surprise him with punches, but in the end, my uppercuts were important”.

“I want another fight in January, and then potentially on to a world title fight. I want any of the 160 pound champions”.

Elwin Soto defended his WBO Light Flyweight title, as he had a little too much know-how for Carlos Buitrago, in a comfortable win on the scorecards. Tallies of 119-109, 117-111 and 115-113 ensured the title remained the possession of the Mexican.

Rashidi Ellis won the battle of unbeaten Welterweights, and picked up the vacant WBC International Silver title, with a clear points win over Alexis Rocha. Scores of 116-112 twice, and a third at 115-113 ensured Ellis improved his record to 23-0.

Uzbekh ‘Bull’, Bektemir Melikuziev made it five knockouts from six wins, as he claimed the vacant WBO Intercontinental Super Middleweight belt with a third round knockout of Alan Campa, who was down four times in all.

Marlen Esparza took the WBC Flyweight title eliminator, with a wide points win against the previously undefeated Sulem Urbina over eight rounds. Two scores of 80-72 and a 78-74 tally were enough for the Texan to inflict a first defeat in 13 on the Arizona based Mexican.

Other Results:

Scheduled Ten Rounds, Super Featherweight: Lamont Roach KO3 Neil John Tabanao
Six Rounds, Cruiserweight: Tristian Kalkreuth UD Tyler Vogel