In a fight of the year candidate, former WBO 154-lb champion Jaime Munguia (38-0, 30 KOs) used his high volume power game to defeat Gabriel Rosado (26-14-1, 15 KOs) by a wider than expected 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Rosado, 35, landed many eye-catching counter-shots, but Munguia’s sheer punch volume was too much for him to match. Munguia’s training team had the perfect game plan to defeat Rosado by outworking him in every round.
The scores were:118-110, 119-109, and 117-111. Boxing 247 scored it for Munguia by a 117-111 score. Rosado appeared to do enough to squeak out three rounds with him hurting Munguia and unloading on him with a flurry when he sensed he was in trouble.
When Rosado would land a particularly hard shot that got the boxing fans excited at the Honda Center, Munguia would answer back with a storm of punches to get the better of him. He did that throughout the fight, and Munguia was wise to make sure that he fired back at Rosado when he would land a hard punch.
In the first three rounds, Munguia was dominating Rosado with his machine gun-like combinations. In the fourth round, Rosado came alive, nailing Munguia with a hard right hand counter that seemed to stun him.
Rosado then attacked in an all-out blitz, hitting Munguia with five hard punches to the back of the head.
Surprisingly, Munguia was able to take those punches so well because they were thrown with a lot of power, and they hit him in the back of the head.
Munguia didn’t show the kind of power that we’d seen from Gennadiy Golovkin in the past when he defeated Rosado by a seventh round knockout earlier in his career in 2013.
Munguia had tonight that Golovkin didn’t possess combination punching and a high work rate that made it impossible for Rosado to match.
Munguia was asked after the fight if he’d be interested in challenging IBF middleweight champion Golovkin next, and he answered in the affirmative. Golovkin is fighting WBA champion Ryota Murata on December 29th in Japan.
After that, there’s a chance that Golovkin might get a fight with Canelo Alvarez on Cinco de Mayo next May in 2022. If Golovkin doesn’t get that fight, he might be interested in facing Munguia, as that’s the perfect match for him.
Rosado said he would like a rematch with Munguia possibly, but that’s not likely to happen.
The fight wasn’t close enough for a rematch to be needed. Also, Munguia wants to challenge for a title against Golovkin, WBC champion Jermall Charlo or WBO champion Demetrius Andrade. Munguia is ranked #1 with the WBC and WBO.
