Jaime Munguia versus Takeshi Inoue was supposed to be a fight where DAZN and Golden Boy would showcase their young 154 lbs WBO champion.  Jaime was able to come out with a UD win, but not a lot of people saw this fight going the distance when it was initially announced.  I for one did not see this fight making it passed the 6^th round.  Munguia was able to land very strong, and flush shots all night long, but Takeshi proved to be tough as nails, somehow never went down, and lasted the entire fight. 

Fight Results
Jamie Munguia wins via UD 12
Munguia retains his WBO Jr. Middleweight Title
Toyota Center, Houston, Texas 
Jan 26, 2019, 6:00 pm, DAZN

I believe that even though some might have been disappointed in Munguia’s performance, and Munguia definitely showed some holes, especially defensively, Jaime is only 22 years old and not a finished product yet.  I’m not going to knock Jaime for not getting the knockout, because after watching the fight, Inoue proved to be tough as hell, and I can’t see anyone knocking him out anytime soon.  When it comes to the defensive weaknesses, I am not shocked because they are problems that I knew existed and expect Munguia to keep working on them.  In this fight, in particular, Inoue was able to win some exchanges inside by getting a little dirty and just letting punches fly even though he was getting hit.  Munguia is going to have to improve his inside game, but I thought this fight was a good experience for him. The fight was tougher than expected because Inoue kept coming forward, and never went away, but I still had Munguia winning 10 out of the 12 rounds.  The CompuBox numbers back me up as well, as they have Munguia landing almost 3 times the amount of punches as Inoue.  No matter what went down the main thing that Munguia needed to do was win, and he did.  Even though Munguia is a champion, he still is young, and I think his team needs to keep reminding themselves of this fact.  Munguia still has a lot to learn, but lucky for him he is still young and looks to have a bright future ahead of him.

Scorecards & Stats

Official Scorecard

120-108, 120-108, and 119-109, Munguia

Final Punch Report

Fighter	Total	Jabs	Power
Munguia	311/998 31%	35/227 13%	276/721 38%
Inoue	134/542 25%	11/111 10%	123/423 29%

Courtesy of Compubox

Next Up for Munguia

The hot topic of the night was Jaime’s eventual move up to 160 lbs.  I believe Munguia should stay at 154 a little bit longer, as long as he can still make the weight, but it seems like his team has other plans.  He did mention that he is going to move up to 160 lbs eventually, but that he would not mind fighting at 154 a few more times.  The fights at 160 that are rumored for him at the moment are big names like Boo Boo Andrade, Jermall Charlo, or Canelo Alvarez.  I could definitely see how that makes sense financially, but since I believe he has a lot to learn, I think that if he does have to move up to 160 lbs he should take at least a few fights to get acclimated to the weight before stepping in with any of the top guys in the division.  We’ll soon find out how things end up, and I definitely am still excited to see Munguia fight again.

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Vergil Ortiz vs. Jesus Barrayan
10 rounds – Jr. Welterweight
Result: Vergil Ortiz wins via RTD 5

Alberto Melian vs. Edgar Ortega
10 rounds – Jr. Featherweight
Result: Alberto Melian wins Via TKO 10

Jesus Rojas vs. Can Xu
12 rounds – Featherweight
Result: Can Xu wins via UD 12 (Erick Scored it 115-113 for Jesus Rojas)

Jaime Munguia (No. 3) vs. Takeshi Inoue
12 rounds – WBO Jr. Middleweight
Result: Jaime Munguia wins Via UD 12

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Note: Numbers next to the boxer is associated with their placement on Ring.com division rankings.

Erick Garcia is a podcaster and boxing junkie. He has been covering the boxing since 2016 for the30minutelunchbreak.com. You can view all of his posts and articles, and follow him on Twitter.