MUNGUIA SUCCESSFUL IN MIDDLEWEIGHT DEBUT, STOPS O'SULLIVAN IN 11
Former WBO junior middleweight titleholder Jaime Munguia was successful in his middleweight debut Saturday night, as he stopped Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan inside 11 rounds on a DAZN card located at the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX.
Munguia (improving his record to 35-0, 28 KO with the win over O’Sullivan) looked quick and strong in his first fight at 160 pounds. The 23-year-old former champion fired off quick combinations to the head and body, and appeared to be in control for the majority of the first three rounds.
But in the final seconds of the third round, O’Sullivan landed a big right hand which seemed to wobble Munguia. Luckily for Munguia, there was not enough time left in the round for O’Sullivan to follow up.
Munguia used the fourth round to recover from the big shot he ate in the previous round, and as a result, O’Sullivan seemed to get the better of him temporarily.
In the fifth, Munguia landed a hard low blow that prompted referee Mark Calo-oy to deduct a point from him as O’Sullivan was recovering in a neutral corner. Munguia landed another low blow in the seventh round, sending O’Sullivan down to one knee in obvious pain. Calo-oy opted not to take a point from the former champ this time.
Near the end of that same round, Munguia hurt O’Sullivan badly with a combination that sent him reeling to the ropes. O’Sullivan made it to the conclusion of the round but continued to take punishment in the rest of the later rounds.
Between rounds 10 and 11, O’Sullivan’s corner even asked the fighter if he wanted to continue. But O’Sullivan chose to go out for another round, and the corner eventually threw in the towel while Munguia was in the middle of hurting O’Sullivan once again with a combination of punches and sending him down the canvas.
With the win over O’Sullivan, Munguia is now in need of an elite opponent to test his skill level. That opponent could possibly be WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, who’s scheduled to defend his title on Jan. 30 against Luke Keeler. Since Munguia used to be a titleholder for the WBO at junior middleweight, it would make sense that he would jump the line of contenders for the organization’s belt at middleweight.
In the co-headliner, former women’s heavyweight champion Alejandra Jimenez captured two super middleweight world titles by outpointing the defending champ Franchon Crews-Dezurn via split decision. The official scorecards read 97-93 (for Crews-Dezurn), 98-92 and 97-93 (for Jimenez).
The early rounds of this super middleweight bout were a wild brawl, as both women hurled big shots at each other throughout. Going into the middle rounds though, the action seemed to be getting the better of Crews-Dezurn, who was visibly exhausted after round four.
Despite the fatigue, Crews-Dezurn still managed to hang in with Jimenez and land big punches going into the second half of the fight. While Crews-Dezurn landed plenty of head-snapping blows, Jimenez continued to walk through them and land hard punches of her own.
At the end of round nine, Crews-Dezurn’s wig was literally hanging from her head, which prompted her corner to remove it for the 10th and final round (in women’s boxing, title fights are 10 rounds, not 12).
The outcome was in doubt as the final round came to a close, although ringside commentator and former world champion Sergio Mora thought Crews-Dezurn had edged it. The judges disagreed, however, awarding Jimenez the decision.