By: Sean Crose
With a record of 39 wins and no defeats, Jaime Munguia returns to the ring on Saturday night to take on the 26-2 Jimmy Kelly in a scheduled 12 round super middleweight affair. The battle will go down at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and will be broadcast live on the DAZN streaming service, starting at 8 PM Eastern Time. Former junior middleweight titlist Munguia is looking to perform well in his super middleweight debut. With that in mind, the Tijuana native plans to go back down to middleweight after this bout in order to get a major fight against the likes of Jermall Charlo. It’s important, however, that the 25 year old get past the 29 year old Kelly first.
For Kelly, Saturday’s bout represents the opportunity of a lifetime. By besting a name fighter, Kelly strengthens his own opportunity to become a name fighter himself. There’s a reason, after all, the Englishman is taking on the likes of Munguia on short notice, that reason being his undefeated and well publicized opponent. Kelly’s last fight was a unanimous decision win over the previously undefeated Kanat Islam in February. What’s more, Kelly, who was once stopped by Liam Smith, hasn’t lost a fight in over four years.
As for Munguia, the man’s last fight was a 3 round destruction of
D’Mitrius Ballard back in February. Once known for his thunderous punching power, he has scored knock outs in two of the five fights he’s had at middleweight. Kelly, on the other hand, has stopped less than half of his opponents within the distance. His last knockout win was against Harry Matthews in 2021. Matthews had a record of 16-49-3 at the time. Although Kelly might not seem to have much of a chance, one never knows. This is boxing, after all.