Munguia Stops Bazinyan in 10, Stakes Claim to Best of Rest 168 lb. Status

Jaime Munguia (44-1, 35 KOs) turned in a mature, consistent, persistent performance in a tenth round stoppage of Erik Bazinyan (32-1-1, 23 KOs) Friday night at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

In his first fight after losing a unanimous decision to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in May– and his first under the Top Rank banner– the Tijuana native applied his usual power game in trying to wear down and take out his opponent, but he seemed more poised and patient with his attack than is usually the case.

Chalk that up to having just come through the biggest task of his career on the biggest stage of his life or just to his increasing maturity at 27 years of age, but Munguia looked like a true finished product in dismantling a tough and underrated Bazinyan atop the ESPN card.

The Canada-based Armenian fought well throughout the contest and kept the fight close on the scorecards. He even managed to land some consequential blows, behind a solid jab, to temporarily dissuade the forward-minded Mexican.

But, ultimately, everything played out true to form.

Munguia would prove to be too strong and too offensively effective to be denied. Bazinyan, meanwhile, lacked the firepower to do anything but temporarily ward off the inevitable.

In the tenth round, Munguian landed a big left hook that stiffened Bazinyan up and sent him backwards. A big right followed, then a sequence of shots that would put Bazinyan on the canvas for the first time in the bout. He would not beat the count.

“It was a fight I had to do intelligently. He’s strong. He hits hard,” Munguia said after the bout. “So we had to break him down and be careful with shots to the body. And in the 10th round, that’s when I decided to come out with everything. And that’s how we got the knockout.”

With the victory, Munguia makes a strong case for the no. 1 slot in the 168 lb. “best of the rest, after Canelo” standings, ahead of former IBF champ Caleb Plant, highly-ranked contender Christian Mbilli, and maybe a half-dozen other names in the super middleweight division.

For now, the target for Munguia may be a run at the IBF super middleweight title, recently stripped from Alvarez and up for grabs in the upcoming Vladimir Shishkin-William Scull bout on October 19. A big-money bout with last Saturday’s Canelo opponent, Edgar Berlanga, however, would be hard to turn down if offered next.