Canelo Alvarez had a heated contest against Jaime Munguia inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. With the two Mexican fighters clashing in the Cinco De Mayo weekend, the atmosphere was electric. On top of that, with the verbal altercation between Canelo and ‘Golden Boy Promotions’ boss Oscar De La Hoya, the excitement reached a fever pitch to see whether the latter got into Alvarez’s head or not.
Jaime Munguia had a very bright start to the contest. He has a significant height and size advantage over Canelo, which he used perfectly to his benefit. The 27-year-old maintained a somewhat safe distance and used his long reach to get around Canelo’s defense. To the surprise of many, Munguia managed to rock Canelo’s head back quite a few times.
3 rounds in the books 🥊🔥
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However, the momentum changed after the third round when the Undisputed Super Middleweight Champion managed to make some small but effective adjustments to his game. Instead of waiting for Munguia to drop his guard, Canelo started countering. While he did not walk forward, Canelo perfectly played the role of a sniper who managed to land some vicious counterpunches whenever Jaime looked dangerous.
Canelo Alvarez handed Jaime Munguia the first knockdown of his career
The 33-year-old also managed to knock Munguia down in the fourth round, which was the first knockdown of the latter’s professional boxing career. It gave the fans an idea about the power difference between the two. Canelo also figured out that Jaime was ducking under whenever he wanted to land a heavy punch. It made him vulnerable to uppercuts, and Alvarez successfully landed some hard shots.
Knocked down for the first time!@Canelo scores the knockdown in the 4th round. #CaneloMunguia | NOW | Live on DAZN: Click link in bio to buy pic.twitter.com/4AcsEBVCqs
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But, to Jaime Munguia’s credit, he never backed down despite the knockdown and power punches from Canelo. As a matter of fact, his cardio was much better and Munguia was quite clearly the faster fighter inside the ring. But, Canelo’s experience came through and he coasted through the final round to pick up a unanimous decision win. The judges scored the contest 117-110, 116-111, and 115-112 for the Mexican fighter.
Canelo Alvarez vs. Jaime Munguia: Punching stats
In the post-fight interview, Canelo Alvarez spoke about his performance and acknowledged that he had a slow start to the bout. However, after taking his time, Canelo settled down and put on a boxing masterclass. And, it shows in the stats as well! The Guadalajara native landed the most amount of punches against Jaime Munguia ever.
In round 1, Alvarez only landed 5 punches as opposed to Munguia’s 11. But, Canelo made a strong comeback in round 2 as he landed 16 punches and Jaime managed 11 punches in the round. However, the youngster fought back in round 3 where he landed 16 punches and restricted Canelo to 14 punches. However, from the fourth round onward, it was utter domination by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
In the following nine rounds, Canelo landed 21 (round 4), 27 (round 5), 21 (round 6), 22 (round 7), 19 (round 8), 25 (round 9), 22 (round 10), 19 (round 11), and 23 (round 12) punches in the contest. It is important to mention that Alvarez outstruck Jaime in all of the above-mentioned rounds. In total Canelo had a better punching stat in 10 of the 12 rounds and he landed 234 punches in total. Jaime Munguia, on the other hand, landed 170 punches in 12 rounds.
Amongst the total punches, Canelo landed 35.8% (83 punches) of his total jabs and 49.7% (151 punches) of his power punches. At the same time, Jaime landed 22.1% (74 punches) of his jabs and only 29.3% (96 punches) of his total power punches. Although it was a disappointing result, Munguia received a lot of compliments from Canelo and will definitely bounce back in his next fight.
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