Jaime Munguia returned to winning ways on September 20, when he faced Erik Bazinyan at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Mexico’s former world champion and the Armenian contender squared off in the main event live on ESPN.
The scheduled for 12 rounds super middleweight bout ended prior to the final bell. Munguia claimed the victory by knockout after he tagged Bazinyan with a big left hook and ultimately dropped him with a flurry of punches. As the latter wouldn’t get back on his feet the referee concluded the count and waved the fight off. The official time was 2:36 into the 10th round.
With the victory, Jaime Munguia of Tijuana, Baja California rebounded from his first career defeat suffered in May against fellow-Mexican Canelo Alvarez. The 27-year-old former super welterweight champion improved to 44-1, 35 KOs.
“It was a fight I had to do intelligently,” Munguia said post-win. “He’s strong. He hits hard. 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.”
“There are great things to come, great fights at 168 pounds. There’s Caleb Plant, [Edgar] Berlanga, Christian Mbilli. There are great fights, and we will give great wars as well.”
Canada-based Erik Bazinyan entered the ring undefeated. The 29-year-old lost his first fight and dropped to 32-1-1, 23 KOs.
“I felt like I was winning,” Bazinyan said. “I felt he was very frustrated with my jab, right hand, and counters. He was getting tired. All of a sudden, I got caught. I don’t know what happened there.”