Mexican super middleweight contender and former world champion Jaime Munguia has shockingly lost while headlining in his hometown of Tijuana on a joint Top Rank and Zanfer Promotions card. Faced against French contender Bruno Sarace in the main event, Munguia showed no actual signs of losing on the cards prior to an unexpected 6th round blow from the Frenchman which would subsequently knock him out after the Mexican contender failed to beat the referee’s count of 10. The Top Rank/Zanfer show was held on Saturday, December 14 in Tijuana.
Jaime Munguia vs. Bruno Sarace
With Jaime Munguia (44-2, 35 KO’s) coming fresh off a September win over super middleweight (168 lbs) Canadian contender Erik Bazinyan (32-1-1, 23 KO’s), Munguia was highly tipped to easily win in his headlining bout against Bruno Sarace (26-0-2, 5 KO’s) which was further held in Munguia’s hometown of Tijuana. Their 168 lbs bout was scheduled for 10 rounds.
The 5 rounds prior to Jaime Munguia certainly did not indicate Munguia would lose in the manner he did as the 1st round passed widely in favor of Munguia whose well-honed pressure style of fighting seemed to already indicate he was heading to a seamless victory. The 2nd round, however, made this notion almost certain as Munguia would knock Sarace down with a counter left hand amidst an exchange.
Bruno Sarace did impress with his fortitude following his 2nd round knockdown, especially considering his own style saw him fight largely on the front foot―an approach that belied his low knockout (KO) percentage and would be more conducive towards fighters with more knockouts on their record.
The next couple of rounds unsurprisingly fell into the hands of Jaime Munguia who continued unloading on the Frenchman, though his efforts did not seem as effective as before as Sarace, over the course of round 3-5, adapted and started sharpening both his defensive fundamentals and the timing of his counters.
With Munguia widely regarded to be ahead on the scorecards by the 6th round, the knockdown that he suffered at the closing half minute mark of the round by Sarace came as a complete surprise after he had largely dominated the round―though it did prove difficult for the Mexican fighter to fully break through Sarace’s defense.
It took but a split-second for Sarace to catch onto defensive vulnerabilities as Munguia prodded the Frenchman’s defense with his jabs in the hopes of finding an opening. With Munguia’s hands dropped low, Sarace managed to land a crushing right hand to the Mexican contender’s cheek, felling Munguia and leading to a countdown by the referee towards 10.
Munguia would fail to stand up in time as he visibly looked debilitated, leading to an emphatic and anti-climatic knockout victory for Bruno Sarace which will assuredly be counted as one of the biggest upsets of this year.
Further defining the shocking result is the low ratio of Sarace’s knockout percentage [below 20% compared to Munguia’s estimate of 80% and his own relative lack of competition compared to Munguia who has faced better competition overall throughout his stay in the super middleweight division.
According to ESPN correspondent Salvador Rodriguez, a rematch clause that Munguia held has been activated, setting the stage for a rematch to be held the upcoming year.
