NEW YORK, NY — Jaime Munguía never saw this punch coming in the sixth round and perhaps Bruno Surace, a heavy underdog will be considered for knockout and upset of the year. Saturday night in his Tijuana, Mexico homecoming, Munguía remains stunned.
Munguía, the super middleweight who went the distance six months ago with fellow Mexican 168-pound king Canelo Alvarez, and possibly in line for another opportunity will now have to wait. Because boxing has moments of the unexpected and this certainly was, Munguía could never bounce back up from the canvas.
A devastating right at 2:36 of the round, Surace (26-0,2, 5 KOs) the unheralded and big underdog is in line for bigger fights. A knockout that will always remain in the boxing books as significant, though not as earth shattering as the Buster Douglas heavyweight title win and stunner over Mike Tyson, February 11, 1990 at the Tokyo Dome.
It sent shockwaves to France, Surace is relatively unknown. And the homecoming for Munguía (44-2, 35 K0’s) a former junior middleweight champion had dropped Surace with a counter left hook in the second round. That certainly was not a knockdown that dedicated what was to come.
And for his first fight not in France, Surace is now known. Munguía did not take his opponent as an easy task, Surace, though with five knockouts and fighting outside the middleweight division. Munguía has lost two of his last three fights including his loss to Alvarez.
However, any hopes of a rematch with Alvarez are in the distance. Munguía, instead has to regroup and answer what went wrong, then again boxing and adjustment for a fighter can take time. Munguía will look at this loss as a setback, a rematch with Surace is also possible.
He was also in line as a possible opponent in the next year for Edgar Berlanga, the 26-year old Brooklyn born and Puerto Rico super middleweight who also went the 12-round distance and lost to Alvarez this year via unanimous decision.
Regardless, a fighter named Surace, has surfaced. The complexion of who faces Alvarez next remains in the balance, Munguía has to rebound and a long haul is ahead.
“I know that he is an excellent boxer. So, we worked on our counter punches,” Surace said in the ring at a capacity filled Estadio Caliente. “He is a true warrior. I want to thank him for the opportunity. This was a big experience for me.Middleweight is my true weight class. But we’ll see if {a rematch} can happen.”
A MEXICAN DRAW: Alexis Rocha and Raúl Curiel, two contenders in the welterweight division and Mexican-American, Saturday evening at the Toyota Arena in Ontario California put on a showcase as part of the Golden Boy Boxing main event that was streamed live on DAZN. This, too, was put into consideration as fight of the year.
The fight was competitive and resulted in a 12-round majority draw, the makings now to warrant a rematch in the new year. Two judges at ringside scored 114-114, the third 116-112 for Rocha. Rocha (25-2,1, 16 KO’s) had him landing 54 of 282 punches, Curiel threw 731 and landed 232, indicating how competitive the two warriors were.
Regardless as both stooped toe-to-toe, throwing punch-after-punch it was difficult for Rocha and Curiel to get that extra advantage and take over. The final two rounds were very close and could have gone either way, thus judges got this one right as many believed a draw was the proper decision. Rocha commented he won seven of the 12-rounds.
“I promised a war, and we got a war for the people,” said (15-0-1, 13 KO’s) Curiel. “It was a tremendous fight. I think the people. I think the people are going home happy. Let’s do it again.”
Said Rocha (25-2-1, 16 KO’s), the NABF champion, “it was a super competitive fight. I felt like personally I could have done more. I felt like I landed the harder shots and he landed more of the pitter patter shots. I wanted to take him to deep waters and test him. It was an all out war, I respect him. I was never hurt and felt like I pulled it off.”
Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and contributor at LatinoSports.com — X (Twitter) @Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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