From Cherry-Pick to Disaster: Munguia’s KO Loss to Surace Is Career-Destroying

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From Cherry-Pick to Disaster: Munguia’s KO Loss to Surace Is Career-Destroying

Jaime Munguia’s decision to fight four times in 2024 may have cost him his sixth round knockout loss to Bruno Surace last Saturday at the Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico. This was a perfect example of a cherry-pick gone wrong.

Overconfidence

Former super middleweight world title challenger Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs) he became greedy, opting to squeeze in a fourth fight this year, and the unranked, little-known Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) took advantage of the opportunity by knocking out the Mexican fighter in front of his fans in Tijuana. This should have been celebrated by Munguia, but what a tragedy.

Munguia looked heavier than usual inside the ring, looking like he didn’t train as hard as he did in his previous fights this year against Erik Bazinyan, Canelo Alvarez, and John Ryder. Apparently, Jaime took it for granted that he would defeat Surace without any problems, but man, he was wrong.

You could see that Surace would quickly become a problem after being taken off in the second half. The Frenchman stood up and went down on top of Munguia’s head which said, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ No one in the 168-lb division throws punches like Surace, and Munguia wasn’t seeing the right shots he was throwing.

The only reason the fight didn’t end earlier was that Bruno, 26, wasn’t giving up on his hands. He was very protective of everything from Jaime, which was understandable. Munguia was showing no respect to Surace inside the ring, throwing combinations and looking to entertain the Mexican fans with quick strikes.

Bruno Surace: “I know he is a good boxer. So, we worked on count punches,” said Surace. “He is a real hero. I want to thank him for the opportunity. This was a big deal for me. Middleweight is my real weight class. But we will see if [a second fight against Munguia] it’s possible.”

Hype work?

It would be a very bad idea for Munguia’s promoters at Top Rank to arrange a rematch with Surace because this guy is smart and will oppose him in the second fight. Munguia doesn’t deserve to beat this guy. If Jaime had real talent, it wouldn’t be 100% hype work; they could put him with Surace again and expect him to avenge his loss. Mexican fighter Munguia can’t do that. He was always protected during his 11-year career.

This defeat puts Munguia’s career in a bad position; he can’t afford another loss. His promoters at Top Rank will have to rebuild him, but they must do so in a way that will match him with the best competitors.

Die-hard boxing fans have already seen Munguia as a rising star since day one. He was a fighter who was associated with tomato cans his entire career just to get a big money fight against Canelo Alvarez. Now that Munguia has finally accomplished his goal of getting that mega-payday fight against Alvarez on May 4th earlier this year, his promoters are sticking with the deeply flawed guy who still needs to be protected as much as ever.