Jaime Munguia got his revenge, but more importantly, under trainer Eddy Reynoso, he looked as impressive as ever while scoring a unanimous decision in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The judges saw this one 116-112, 117-111 & 117-111, all for Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs), who used smart pressure and great defense to get revenge over Bruno Surace (26-1, 5 KOs) who knocked him out in their first fight. The combination of Munguia and Reynoso appears to be one that could give Munguia a second run in the super middleweight division.
During the in-ring post-fight interview, Munguia mentioned that he would like Caleb Plant, Edgar Berlanga, and fighters of that caliber.
According to CompuBox, “Munguia fought a measured fight, averaging 31 punches thrown per round- half of his previous average in fights tracked by CompuBox. 49% of Munguia’s landed punches were body shots. Munguia connected on 44% of his power punches. Surace only landed 22% of his punches.”
It was a solid opening round as Munguia was jabbing his way inside. He followed it up with a left hook to the body and a strong overhand right. Surace, full of confidence from the first fight, wasted no time unloading the overhand right. Surace then began to counterpunch, which resulted in most of his punches landing cleanly.
Munguia had a better round in the second as he led with the left jab and straight right hand. Surace was looking to counter more than lead with his offense. In the third round, Munguia’s offense began to increase while also being more aware of his defense than the reckless approach he often has shown throughout his fights. Surace was waiting for Munguia to make a mistake so he could land the right hand, but that opportunity did not come up until the third.
While Munguia’s approach was a patient one in the fourth round, Surace was landing the clean overhand rights and left uppercuts. Surace showed glimpses of what worked for him the first time he faced Munguia. In the fifth round, Munguia kept throwing one punch at a time. Surace kept landing solid combinations, and Munguia tried to avoid being countered.
Throughout the second part of the fight, Munguia was comfortable and unloaded big right hands to the head and body of Surace. There wasn’t much Surace could do, and he fought frustrated. Munguia continued to apply smart pressure and kept his hands up high. Although there were times when Munguia wanted to go back to his old ways, Reynoso’s instructions after each round preaching defense first kept Munguia out of trouble.
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