2020 Boxing Preview: Jaime Munguia vs. Gary O’ Sullivan

Green grows the rushes, and Ireland will go to War with Mexico on Jan 11th in The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, United States. 

Golden Boy is back at it in a joint effort with DAZN to bring two top fighters together. Jaime Munguia is looking for challenges in a new weight class. The former WBO jr. middleweight champ will move up to 160 to take on Spike O’Sullivan. 

At just 23 years old, Munguia is already loaded with experience. His opponents would be remiss if they overlooked him because of his age. The Tijuana native already has 33 fights under his belt. He went pro at a tender age back in 2013 and worked his way up to fighting and beating Sadam Ali to take the WBO junior middleweight (or super welterweight) title.

But it wasn’t the first time that he had had his hands on the belt. Back in February of 2018, he won the vacant title in a bout with Jose Carlos Paz by way of knockout. Since TKOing Ali, Munguia has retained his WBO light-middleweight title five times. And he hasn’t stayed local in North America to do so. He’s accepted fights from Liam Smith of Britain, Brandon Cook of Canada – who he made short work of as an undercard at the second Canelo-Golovkin fight. Then he took on Takeshi Inoue from Japan and won by unanimous decision. Just a few months later he defended again against Ireland’s Dennis Hogan where he won by stoppage. He finally took a more than a few months off and then beat Patrick Allotey of Ghana by TKO in September of 2019.

Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan is the former WBO international middleweight champ. At 35 years of age, O’Sullivan has had 30 fights and only lost 3. Currently, he’s on a two-fight win streak after getting knocked out by David Lemieux in September of 2018. Prior to his loss to the Canadian, he had won six straight. The second loss of his career coming to Chris Eubanks Jr. and with that loss, Spike was riding another six-fight win streak, so is there a pattern here? Hopefully, O’Sullivan won’t be distracted by any of his acting or stunt work. He said, that he is thrilled to fight Jamie Munguia and that he is a young talented champion so he will prepare for this fight harder than any fight in his career and as such, we should keep up to date and don’t miss the odds on the bout.

Beltran, Jaime Munguia’s co-promoter stated that the fight should bring a lot of action for the fans watching.

 “We respect O’Sullivan a lot, we have seen him fight before, he went the distance with Billy Joe Saunders and knows how to fight. He’s a great fighter. It’s going to be an interesting fight between both guys. We’re bringing two fighters who come to fight. Their faces will be different after they walk out of the ring. These guys are really going to come to each other, and we know we’re going to see a sensational bout of boxing. That really motivates me. We know this is a very big step because if Jaime wants to be in the top middleweight, he needs to pass this test.” – Fernando Beltran

Although Jaime is coming up in weight, it shouldn’t be a problem given the fact that he is six-feet tall. He might fight more comfortably up a bit closer to his natural weight. O’Sullivan gives up two inches in height to Munguia. It’s clear that this is meant to be a showcase type fight for Munguia. If he can beat a former champ who is still winning, it should set him up for some of the better-known fighters at 160. 

munguia vs o'sullivan

But Spike has the Dennis Hogan tapes to study. Although Munguia got the win, it was controversial at best. If that fight wasn’t in Mexico or if Munguia was the challenger… he probably wouldn’t have been awarded that win. And O’Sullivan, although not flashy and a bit flat-footed at times, is tough to beat. He’s a smart, technically sound boxer with a stiff jab and a hard cross. Still, he’s coming in as a +800 underdog so it will be an uphill battle against the young and talented Mexican who has his sights set on Canelo.

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