A match between Jaime Munguia and John Ryder has captured the fancy of promoter Oscar De La Hoya.
The founder of Golden Boy, Munguia’s promoter, recently raved about a possible match-up between the Mexican super middleweight contender and London’s Ryder.
De La Hoya was particularly keen on the idea that the fight could be used as a yardstick for the 26-year-old Munguia in relation to Canelo Alvarez, the undisputed 168-pound champion who used to be promoted by De La Hoya before they parted ways on hostile terms in 2020.
Given that Alvarez is coming off a tougher-than-expected points win over Ryder in the spring, De La Hoya is enthralled by the notion that Munguia could one-up Alvarez by stopping Ryder.
“I love that fight with Ryder,” De La Hoya told FightHubTV. “It’s a great fight. Ryder gave Canelo all he could handle and he went 12 rounds with him. He hit him, busted him up. I think Ryder would be a perfect opponent, a perfect name, for Jaime Munguia. It’ll be a difficult, tough fight. Imagine if Jaime Munguia could knock him out, something that Canelo couldn’t do.”
A Munguia-Ryder fight should be feasible to make, since both fighters are aligned with promoters (Munguia with Golden Boy, Ryder with Matchroom) that have content output deals with DAZN.
De La Hoya said his company is hoping to have Munguia return to the ring in November, possibly December. He acknowledged the difficulty in finding credible opponents for Munguia, whose résumé at middleweight has been roundly criticized for its lack of elite opposition.
“There’s some opportunities out there for Jaime, and we’re looking at November and December, most likely November, to bring him back,” De La Hoya said. “I do have to say that it has been difficult to find him opponents. It has been difficult because either they’re fighting [already scheduled], his opponents, or they’re not ready. Either the date is too soon or too late. It’s always something. Hopefully we can nail something down. We have a couple of names, other than Ryder. It’ll be interesting to see who’s gonna want to fight Jaime Munguia.”
A fight between Munguia and Alvarez is unlikely, at least anytime soon, despite De La Hoya’s projections. Notwithstanding their bad blood, Alvarez is currently engaged in a three-fight contract with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions, a sworn business rival of De La Hoya.
“We want to fast track him,” De La Hoya said of Munguia. “We want him to fight for the world title already. He’s ready. He’s there. He’s on a mission and that mission is to become world champion and hopefully one day fight Canelo.”
Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) last fought in June, when he went nearly life-and-death with Sergiy Derevyanchenko in what was Munguia’s debut at super middleweight. Munguia eked out a close unanimous decision.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.