I was barred from fighting Gennady Golovkin, but have now earned Canelo Alvarez showdown

29/04/2024 13:45

If Jaime Munguia is considered the most suitable alternative to David Benavidez for Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s next opponent, he will know how close he potentially came to the undisputed super middleweight title fight passing him by.

The undefeated Mexican was in 2018 rejected by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as a suitable opponent to Gennady Golovkin, at a time when the great Kazakh was in his devastating prime and when Munguia, then 21, would have been an overwhelming, inexperienced underdog and likely have lost.

An illness Liam Smith suffered then forced his withdrawal from a fight with Sadam Ali, creating a demand for a late-notice challenger for the then-WBO super-welterweight world champion. A void Munguia – available as a consequence – was permitted to fill.

When Munguia then won, he became regarded as one of the world's most exciting young boxers, continued to improve as a fighter and to enhance his reputation, and finally to be identified as the most suitable next opponent for Alvarez – ensuring that 2024's Cinco de Mayo will surround an All-Mexican affair.

"I'm happy I didn't get that opportunity [against Golovkin]," Munguia said in 2018, "It was better [I didn't] because my career's also better right now.

“Of course, I'd have done a much better job than [Golovkin's eventual opponent] Vanes Martirosyan; I would have gone in there with the mentality to win; the mentality to throw punches.”

Discussing his early life, Munguia recalled: "I never actually got to see my dad fight; by the time I could remember things he had already retired. The first gym I went to was called Club Cheto's, the first boxing gym Tijuana ever had.

"I didn't come from a very luxurious background – [typically for Tijuana] it's not a family with a lot of money. What happened is that my mum and dad worked really hard all the time. I didn't experience a lack of food or a lack of clothing or anything like that; my parents worked really hard.

"My mother owned a grocery store in Tijuana, and my father was a seller, selling different things – including selling cars.

"From 14 or so, I liked to help my dad sell stuff, or sell cars; I'd help my mother in her grocery store; sometimes I'd help my aunts and uncles.

"I spent my entire upbringing in Tijuana. My dad just used to bring me in [to the ring] when I was just one year old. I don't know if you can call it being nervous or being scared, but that's what I had at the very beginning. Little by little that started going away, and I realised that I really liked it.

"A very good trainer I had, Alvarez Tostado, realised I could really hit hard. That I had a lot of talent in the gym.

"I had a long amateur background, I had maybe 130 fights, and because of my amateur background I was able to travel a lot in Mexico. I went everywhere – Cancun; Guadalajara; Mexicali – everywhere in Mexico and I even travelled to Cuba; when you compare yourself to the poverty over there, you feel rich.

"I never went to the Olympics because I didn't want to do it. I did win some national titles in Mexico; in 2012 I won gold; in 2013 I won bronze, then afterwards I wanted to start my professional career."

The trilogy between Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales secured their legacies in Mexico. If Alvarez's definitive rivalry was with Golovkin, who he defeated convincingly in the third of their three fights in 2022, the one-sided nature of that occasion would perhaps have damaged Munguia's reputation to a point that he would have been out of contention to finally fight his compatriot if he had fought and lost to Golovkin in 2018 instead of being saved from himself. 

Instead, against the groomed-for-greatness Mexican who became the world's highest-profile fighter, he is the blue-collar representative of what is widely considered the most working-class, machismo boxing culture of all.

"I would like to fight with 'Canelo' or Golovkin," he also once said. "Next year, I'll go to 160lbs. I have the stature and size – it would be a dream fight. A fight between Mexicans is attractive, steals spotlights.

"I want to be the next Mexican idol, like Julio Cesar Chavez. I see myself like this in a few years.

"I've known Julio Cesar Chavez since I was kid in the amateurs. Julio Cesar Chavez knew me, and it's a relationship where he gives me a lot of advice. I never really got to see him fight because that's before my time, but it's definitely an inspiration.

"I started from zero, just like everybody else, I didn't start with an established name, because my father didn't really dedicate himself to the sport 100 per cent. He always worked, and stuff like that, so he never really became a big name, so it really didn't have an effect on my career.

"I don't really know why so many good fighters come from here [Tijuana] but it seems a long time since there's been one [the retired Antonio Margarito preceded him but retired in 2017].

"I want to be the next to put Tijuana's name very high – to put Tijuana on the map again."