From Cherry-Pick To Catastrophe: Munguia's KO Loss To Surace Derails Career

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

Overconfidence

The former super middleweight world title challenger Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs) got greedy, choosing to squeeze a fourth fight in this year, and the unranked, little-known Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) took advantage of that by knocking out the Mexican fighter in front of his fans in Tijuana. This was supposed to celebrate Munguia, but what an utter disaster.

Munguia looked heavier than usual inside the ring, appearing like he hadn’t trained as hard as in his previous fights this year against Erik Bazinyan, Canelo Alvarez, and John Ryder. Obviously, Jaime took it for granted that he was going to defeat Surace with no problems, but man, he was wrong.

You could see that Surace was going to be a problem early on after he was dropped in the second round. The Frenchman got up and landed a lightning-fast right to the head of Munguia that was like, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ No one in the 168-lb division throws punches like Surace, and Munguia wasn’t seeing the right-hand shots that he was throwing.

The only reason the fight didn’t end earlier is because Bruno, 26, wasn’t letting his hands go. He was mostly defending all the incoming from Jaime, which was understandable. Munguia was showing no respect for Surace inside the ring, throwing combinations and looking to impress the Mexican fans with a fast knockout.

Bruno Surace: “I know that he is an excellent boxer. So, we worked on our counter punches,” Surace said. “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 second fight against Munguia] can happen.”

A Hype Job?

It would be a very bad idea for Munguia’s promoters at Top Rank to set up a rematch with Surace because this guy is smart and will counter him into oblivion in a second fight. Munguia isn’t good enough to beat this guy. If Jaime possessed actual ability, it wouldn’t be a 100% hype job; they could put him in with Surace again and expect him to avenge his loss. The 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 need to rebuild him, but they must do so in a way that matches him against notable opposition.

Hardcore boxing fans already perceive Munguia as a hype job from day one. He was a fighter purposefully matched against tomato cans his entire career for the sole purpose of getting a big-money fight against Canelo Alvarez. Now that Munguia finally fulfilled his purpose of getting that mega-payday fight against Alvarez on May 4th earlier this year, his promoters are stuck with a badly flawed guy who still needs to be protected just as he always was.