Undisputed Super Middleweight World Champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will defend his titles against unbeaten top contender Jaime Munguia in an all-Mexico battle Saturday, May 4, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, in a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view available on Prime Video.
While it’s not the fight many fans were hoping for, Munguia represents a solid punch. The unbeaten, 27-year-old Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs), a former WBO 154-pound world champion from Tijuana, prevailed as the opponent in the high-profile renewal of Alvarez’s annual Cinco de Mayo affair which Alvarez announced on Instagram.
Alvarez’s selection came after bypassing the public’s most-wanted pick, unbeaten former super middleweight champion David Benavidez, who claimed the sport’s most popular active fighter walked away from a substantial split of purse money to settle upon a man that most in the universe regard as a softer touch.
To illustrate the lengths Alvarez was willing to go to fight Munguia instead of his Premier Boxing Champions stablemate Benavidez, the bout marks a reunion of sorts with the promoter Alvarez bitterly parted ways with in November 2020: Oscar De La Hoya.
De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions is Munguia’s U.S. promoter, handling the fighter’s most recent appearance, a ninth-round stoppage of England’s John Ryder in Arizona, eight months after Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) settled for a unanimous decision over Ryder at his Mexico homecoming bout in May.
Not only that, while PBC is producing the bout and launching a new broadcast deal with Amazon’s Prime Video this year after a decade-long run with Showtime, the Munguia selection means the bout will also be distributed by DAZN instead of standing as a Prime Video exclusive.
Two officials familiar with the negotiations who are unauthorized to speak publicly about them told BoxingScene that DAZN is streaming the fight as well, because of its exclusive ties to Golden Boy Promotions and Golden Boy’s multi-fight agreement with Munguia.
DAZN, according to one of the officials, will receive a far smaller fraction of the revenue it receives from pay-per-view buys – the lion’s share going to Amazon – according to the official. PPV.com will also stream the bout.
While there was some speculation that Munguia’s ties to Golden Boy ended with the Ryder fight, one official told BoxingScene no one from the Amazon/PBC/Canelo side reviewed the Munguia-Golden Boy contract, and no one wanted to risk litigation by excluding DAZN.
“There was enough of an argument [that Golden Boy and Munguia remained contractually linked] that fighting it would’ve slowed things down, and it might become a headache later on,” the official said.
What matters most is that Alvarez, 33, finally has his opponent and an opportunity versus a forward-fighting foe to record his first knockout or stoppage since he stopped Caleb Plant in November 2021.
Since then, Alvarez has lost to light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and posted three unanimous decision triumphs over a lethargic Gennadiy Golovkin, the now-retired Ryder and a disinterested then-154-pound champion Jermell Charlo.
While Benavidez posted a Nov. 25 stoppage of then-unbeaten former middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade to affirm his spot as the most obvious next opponent for Alvarez, the sport’s most prominent champion instead considered Charlo’s twin brother, Jermall Charlo, an unbeaten middleweight champion who returned from an extended layoff and fought like a lesser version while defeating Benavidez’s older brother, Jose Benavidez Jr., on the same card.
Power puncher Edgar Berlanga was also floated as Alvarez and PBC briefly separated, but DAZN – and a throng of allegiant fans – weren’t interested in that, either.
Munguia is the obvious compromise selection, and now he starts to build his case as a worthy challenger to the undisputed champion’s reign.
Benavidez’s father-trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., says he believes the “younger, stronger” Munguia might give Alvarez some fits given his willingness to engage.
And Munguia now has Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach in his corner, pointing to strides seen in the Ryder bout as an example of how this fight has far more competitive value than Canelo’s two 2023 duds.
An informal BoxingScene survey of boxing insiders established a predicted range of 600,000 to 800,000 pay-per-view buys.
It’s Alvarez’s first all-Mexican Cinco de Mayo bout since 2017, when he dominated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
And if the first Prime Video card, headlined by Tim Tszyu versus Keith Thurman, is an example, PBC has exhibited interest in beefing up its pay-per-view cards, lending intrigue to who will land on Canelo-Munguia to assist in its reach for a maximum pay-per-view audience.
One strong co-main possibility, BoxingScene has learned, is the gifted unbeaten welterweight from Philadelphia, Jaron “Boots” Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs).
Ennis is awaiting a March 19 purse bid for his mandatory title fight against Canada’s Cody Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs). The purse-bid winner will decide where and when Ennis-Crowley will occur.
Ennis is immensely popular among boxing’s hard-core fans and has been likened to a young Roy Jones Jr.
Perhaps one day soon he’ll anchor his own major pay-per-views.
For now, that’s the domain of Canelo Alvarez.
–boxingscene.com
