Former world champions Danny Jacobs and Jaime Munguia have a 164 -pound catchweight fight pegged for June 11th on Dazn in the works.
Munguia has upset boxing fans recently by failing to fight Jermall Charlo, Zhanibek Alimkhanuly, Demetrius Andrade, and Carlos Adames.
Those were all doable fights for Munguia but he failed to take them. Rather than fighting those guys, Munguia has been padding his recent for the last two years fighting these guys:
D’Mitrius Ballard
Kamil Szeremeta
Tureano Johnson
Gary O’Sullivan
Gabe Rosado
Munguia had a chance to fight WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo next, but his promoters couldn’t make a deal due to broadcast rights issues. DAZN, the network Munguia fights on, wanted to show the fight, but Showtime wanted the match on their network.
“We’re not going to let anyone dictate to us what we’re doing to do with our partners, who built Jaime Munguia on Dazn,” said Golden Boy Promotions boss Oscar De La Hoya to Fight Hub TV.
“It wouldn’t have been fair to exclude them from this huge match-up. Look, I’m pretty sure that fight will happen very soon. It’s a matter of time. It’s a great fight, but in the meantime, we have our plans with Munguia.
“We have plans to make him a world champion this year, and then he wants to fight anybody. I hope that fight gets made,” said De La Hoya on the Jermall Charlo vs. Munguia fight.
Munguia’s best chance of winning a world title in 2022 is if he goes after the WBO 160-lb title. For Munguia to win that belt, he’d have to beat Zhanibek.
For Golden Boy to get Jacobs to agree to a fight with Munguia, it would cost a lot because he’s used to getting paid well for his fights.
The problem is, Jacobs hasn’t done well lately, and it’s difficult to imagine him getting the money that he once enjoyed as the B-side player against Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin.
Will it be worth it for DAZN to pay Jacobs for a fight that might not attract interest from boxing fans? Fans would be interested in the fight if Jacobs was still winning and there was the potential of him beating Munguia.
But after watching Jacobs’ last two fights against John Ryder and Gabe Rosado, he would have little more than a puncher’s chance of winning against Munguia. It might be better for Golden Boy and DAZN to go in another direction.
If Munguia wanted to impress boxing fans, he’d face the highly ranked 2016 Olympian Zhanibek on DAZN in June rather than the recently beaten 35-year-old Jacobs.
Fighting Jacobs will give the 25-year-old Munguia the chance to show what he can do against a fighter that gave Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin problems.
Those fights took place years ago when Jacobs was younger and still fighting at a high level, so whatever Munguia does against him now will be meaningless given his advanced age.
The casual boxing fans will be pleased with seeing Munguia and Jacobs mix it up on DAZN, but not the hardcore fans that have been following Daniel’s career.
If you’re DAZN, there might be enough of an upside in using Jacobs as Munguia’s opponent unless this is the final fight of his contract with them.
Munguia-Jacobs probably won’t bring in a significant amount of new subscribers to DAZN because no one is demanding this match-up, and Jacobs has looked godawful in his last three fights. His last good effort was against Canelo in 2019, and he lost that fight.
ESPN MX are reporting the news of the possible fight between former WBO 154lb champion Munguia (39-0, 31 KOs) and the 35-year-old ‘Miracle Man’ Jacobs (37-4, 30 KOs).
The 25-year-old Munguia would need to move up from the 160-lb weight class to face the super middleweight Jacobs at 164. It shouldn’t be a problem for either fighter to deal with the catchweight.
Jacobs hit the lottery in his fight against Canelo Alvarez in 2019, and he’s been headlining ever since on DAZN against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Gabe Rosado, and John Ryder.
Last February, Jacobs was beaten by John Ryder by a questionable 12 round split decision loss in a WBA super-middleweight title eliminator in London.
Some boxing fans thought Jacobs deserved the win over Ryder, but it was hard to give him the win due to the passive way he fought. Jacobs was clinching a lot in the second half, and he looked very tired and older than his chronological age of 35.
Had Jacobs won that fight, he’d be the WBA mandatory challenger to undisputed 168-lb champion Canelo Alvarez, and he’d be in a position to face the Mexican superstar in a rematch in December.
Canelo is expected to face Ryder in December as part of his three-fight deal with Matchroom Boxing / DAZN if he successfully beats WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7th and Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17th.
Jacobs could have been the third fight for Canelo this year if he’d beaten Ryder. You win some and you lose some, I guess. At this point in Jacobs’ career, he doesn’t appear to be capable of beating the top-five opposition, but he might get lucky against Munguia.
Munguia is pretty flawed and has been maneuvered carefully during his career and has yet to fight his first solid opponent after nine years in the game.
