Canelo Alvarez continues to remain the super middleweight undisputed champion after a unanimous decision (UD) win over Jaime Munguia on May 4th during the annual “Cinco de Mayo” weekend. The fight card, promoted by PBC through TGB Promotions, was held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and broadcasted as a PPV by Amazon Prime while simultaneously being available for DAZN’s customers through their subscription service.
While Canelo Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KO’s) did not manage to net a knockout/stoppage victory, he nonetheless marked an important milestone in his career by staving off the rise of Jaime Munguia (43-1, 34 KO’s) who was threatening to take his place as the most prominent Mexican fighter on the planet.
The fight itself was competitive, but Munguia’s inexperience proved to be his downfall against Alvarez. Primarily, Munguia stayed too long in the pocket with Alvarez, neglecting to use his greater height and reach to his advantage which allowed Alvarez to thrive without necessarily needing to draw out his full ability.
With Alvarez’ power and counterpunch abilities already making him a danger up close, Munguia failed to properly adjust to Alvarez’ style, suffering a knockdown in the 4th round to signify the ineffectiveness of his own fighting style.
Notably, Canelo Alvarez retained a balance with the way he fought, never overextending himself unnecessarily while doing enough to clearly win rounds. The outcome of the fight after 12 rounds saw Alvarez win by unanimous decision through all three judges’ scorecards with scores of 117-110, 116-111, and 115-112.
With his victory, Alvarez continues to remain the undisputed champion of the 168 lbs division, once more allowing the Mexican champion to reign without issue. While David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KO’s) should still be the WBC mandatory contender―and the only mandatory contender based on all the main sanctioning bodies in the division, with the WBC already having admitted to refusing to order a fight between him and Canelo Alvarez, Alvarez continues to remain free to fight who he wants.
Currently, Alvarez is virtually a considered a free agent after a behind-the-scenes conflict with PBC caused them to separate; only for Canelo Alvarez to return to the PBC fold on a one-fight deal with Jaime Munguia.
The flexible nature of Alvarez’ free agent status now makes it feasible his next fight will be featured exclusively on DAZN if he signs a deal with Matchroom; something that might actually occur given his fight with Munguia was broadcasted on DAZN [not on PPV] alongside PBC’s broadcaster of Amazon Prime―who made the fight available exclusively as a PPV event.
Puerto Rican-American 168 lbs contender Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KO’s) might therefore be next up to face Canelo Alvarez, having already been rumored to face Alvarez earlier this year when the undisputed super middleweight champion was looking for an opponent for May 4th following his split from PBC.
The PBC undercard further saw the return of Lithuanian welterweight Eimantas Stanionis (15-0, 9 KO’s) in the defense of his 147 lbs WBA “regular” title against Venezuelan contender Gabriel Maestre (6-1-1, 5 KO’s). Stanionis won easily by UD with scores of 119-110, 118-110, and 117-111. The only notable fact about this fight continues to remain the WBA’s inconsistency, with Stanionis having somehow managed to remain the WBA “regular” champion despite his last fight having occurred in April of 2022.
In the featherweight division, Brandon Figueroa (25-1-1, 19 KO’s) defended his WBC interim title against fellow American Jessie Magdaleno (29-3, 18 KO’s) as he defeated his opponent by a knockout (KO) in the 9th round. Having made the move to transition from the super bantamweight division to the 126 lbs division since losing to former 122 lbs unified champion Stephen Fulton (24-1, 8 KO’s) in 2021, Figueroa has now emerged as a genuine featherweight contender.
WBC interim welterweight champion Mario Barrios (29-2, 18 KO’s) returned to the ring to defend his title against Argentinian contender Fabian Andres Maidana (22-3, 16 KO’s). Maidana, the younger brother of the widely more famous and accomplished Marcos Maidana, did not thoroughly impress as he went on to lose to Barros by UD, but the fighter did quite well to complete the full amount of rounds in his first 12-round fight without any issue or suffering unnecessary damage. All three judges scored the fight in favor of Barrios with 116-111 scorecards.
