Jaime Munguia & Sergiy Derevyanchenko weighed in at 167 1/2 lbs on Friday for this Saturday’s twelve round bout on DAZN at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Munguia (41-0, 33 KOs) is tired of waiting for Jermall Charlo to resume his career to defend his WBC middleweight title against him, so he’s choosing to move up to 168, where he at least has a chance to get some interesting fights.
A victory for Munguia will likely see him moved up high in the World Boxing Council’s rankings at 168 to within striking distance of a title shot against undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez.
It wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Munguia be given a title shot against Canelo ahead of interim WBC 168-lb champion David Benavidez, who has been waiting for ages to get a crack at him.
The 5’9″ Derevyanchenko (14-4, 10 KOs) isn’t the ideal opponent for Munguia to fight to get his feet wet for the super middleweight division because he’s small even for the 160-lb division.
Munguia’s promoters at Golden Boy obviously don’t want to throw him to the wolves at 168 right away because it’s going to be a big enough shock as it is to go from fighting sub-level opposition like Jimmy Kelly, Gonzalo Gaston Coria, and D’Mitrius Ballard to facing Derevyanchenko.
Munguia says he wants to fight David Benavidez, but he doesn’t look at all believable. When he says he wants to fight Benavidez, the look on his face doesn’t appear genuine.
If this was the version of Derevyanchenko that arguably beat Gennadiy Golovkin four years ago in 2019, it’s a given that Golden Boy wouldn’t let him anywhere near Munguia because he was too dangerous back then.
But now that Derevyanchenko is 37 and has been softened up in losses to Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, Carlos Adames, and Daniel Jacobs, he’s been deemed safe for Munguia to fight.
If Derevyanchenko can regain his form when he fought Jacobs and Golovkin, he could give Munguia problems and possibly stop him.
The B-side Derevyanchenko will probably need a knockout to win because he’s been brought in as the opponent for showcase purposes for Munguia, and that means he’ll need to go above and beyond to get the victory.
Munguia has been calling out 41-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin a lot lately, and it’s pointless. Instead of wasting his breath begging for a fight against GGG, Munguia should take advantage of being given a free invitation to fight for the WBO 160-lb belt against Janibek Alimkhanuly because that’s a fight he could get immediately.
