Recently knocked out, Jaime Munguia’s rematch with Bruno Surace will be the chief support bout on the Canelo Alvarez vs. William Scull PPV card on May 3rd in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Munguia’s inclusion on the card is obviously designed to take advantage of the holiday and start building interest in an eventual rematch with Canelo. Jaime looked awful in losing to Alvarez last May, but he can be rebuilt for a second match with a couple of good wins.
It would look bad for Munguia to get a rematch with Canelo while more talented fighters like David Benavidez and David Morrell continue to be ignored, but this is business. To keep the Canelo train going, he’s got to be matched carefully, and Munguia is perfect.
Surace Rematch
It’s essential here that Munguia doesn’t get knocked out again by Surace because he was destroyed last December in a sixth-round knockout loss in Tijuana.
The Ring announced the Canelo-Scull undercard today, with this being the line-up:
Jaime Munguia vs Bruno Surace II
Martin Bakole vs Efe Ajagba
Badou Jack vs Ryan Rozicki
Marco Verde vs Michel Polina
Brayan Leon vs Aaron Guerrero
Heavyweight Martin Bakole (21-2, 16 KOs) is coming off a humiliating second-round knockout loss to Joseph Parker last month on February 22nd in Riyadh. That loss makes him unworthy of being on the Canelo-Scull card in the eyes of many fans, who are criticizing his placement in this event.
It would have been better to let Bakole come back on a lesser card because it’s too soon for him to be back in the limelight. Hopefully, Bakole comes in lighter than the 310 lbs he weighed for his fight with Parker. For a professional athlete to let themselves go like that in between fights, it’s pathetic. They depend on their bodies for their careers, and there’s no excuse for a fighter to let themselves get that fat after their biggest career win. Bakole had knocked out Jared Anderson last August.
41-year-old WBC cruiserweight champion Badou Jack (28-3-3, 17 KOs) is defending against Ryan Rozicki (20-1-1, 19 KOs). Older fans will like this fight, but probably not younger ones unfamiliar with Jack.
