Jaime Munguia targets Edgar Berlanga for 2025 fight

Jaime Munguia says he is interested in fighting Edgar Berlanga in 2025 and feels it will be a “good fight”. This will be a business-level match as it is not a front-runner type of match as neither of these guys are going anywhere in the division.

Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) has talked non-stop about his interest in facing Munguia (44-1, 35 KOs) next since his huge 12-round unanimous decision loss to Canelo Alvarez on September 14th. The scores were 118-109, 117-110 and 118-109.

Munguia-Berlanga will be a fight involving contenders recently beaten by Canelo, both looking to quickly work their way into a second clash. It is believed that Canelo carried Munguia out of respect and did not want to knock out a fellow Mexican. Munguia was out of his class, and was lucky not to get knocked out by Canelo.

Mexico vs Puerto Rico?

He doesn’t understand why Berlanga celebrated his loss afterwards, and he feels it was ridiculous. Pathetic is the correct term. After that, Berlanga traveled around Puerto Rico in the back of a truck and was treated like a hero instead of a loser. It was so completely bizarre.

Billing this as a fight that will sell on PPV, the Eddie Hearn-promoted Berlanga is pitching it as a clash between Mexico and Puerto Rico. Brooklyn, New York native Berlanga wants to market the fight as a match between those countries.

Munguia next fights the unheralded Bruno Surace (20-0-2, 4 KOs) on Saturday night in a 10-round contest on December 14th in Tijuana, Mexico.

“I don’t know what to say. I don’t celebrate a loss. I work hard so I can learn. So, for me, I think it’s ridiculous to celebrate a loss,” Jaime Munguia told Fight Hub TV, about Edgar Berlanga celebrating his loss to Canelo Alvarez on September 14th.

“I respect him as a fighter, but I think it seems ridiculous to celebrate a loss. Let’s fight that battle. It will be a good fight for next year. So, let’s do it,” Munguia said of his interest in fighting Berlanga in 2025.

“This is not the main goal (to fight Berlanga). There’s Caleb Plant, and Mbilli, who is with Top Rank. First of all, we have this engagement on December 14th (against Bruno Surace in Tijuana), if everything goes well, we want to have a big fight next year.

A fight on a business level

It will be more interesting for Munguia to test himself against Mbilli, Plant or Osleys Iglesias than to fight against Berlanga. If Munguia wanted to get the respect of fans, he would pick those guys over Berlanga. However, it is doubtful that he will do so for obvious reasons. He would lose.

Munguia is cut from the same cloth as Berlanga in terms of how he has been matched up in his career. So, instead of breaking the mold of how he’s been groomed for 11 years, he’ll almost certainly fight Berlanga, which would be a business-level fight.

So it is predictable that he will fight Berlanga rather than risk being beaten by Mbilli, Plant or Iglesias. Fighting any of those three would be against the grain for Munguia, as he has never fought good contenders in his 11-year career.

Munguia’s best wins

– John Ryder
– Sergiy Derevyanchenko: 39 years old
– Erik Bazinyan
– Liam Smith
– Saddam Ali

“We have to see what the people want. I think the better fight is with Berlanga. I think people will like that fight. There are a lot of fights at 168, but we’ll see what the public wants.

“It will be a good fight but I think Munguia will win because of the experience. I think he has a lot more experience than Morrell and is stronger,” Munguia said of the February 1st fight between David Benavidez and David Morrell. “They are both undefeated; they are with the same promoter. It looks like a very exciting fight,” Munguia said.

David Benavidez is NOT a stronger puncher than David Morrell, and not even close. Munguia turned it around with that view. Benavidez is a volume puncher, not a power guy, and doesn’t have the pop to fight like he used to when he was fighting smaller fighters at 168.