Jaime Munguia walked out of Monterrey, Mexico still as the WBO junior middleweight champion, but only after having his toughest test as a pro yet.
After a tough 12 rounds against mandatory challenger Dennis Hogan, Munguia escaped with a majority decision victory in the main event of a DAZN card. The two judges that had Munguia winning 115-113 and 116-112 while one judge scored it a 114-114 draw.
Hogan's gameplan of pacing himself around the ring and staying out of Munguia's punches worked well throughout the fight. Munguia had tried to the land the right hand, but was successful only at certain points in the fight where he was able to trap Hogan in the corner or up against the ropes. But more often than not, Hogan was able to get the better of Munguia and the challenger thought he had won the fight.
Munguia became increasingly frustrated as the fight wore on and wasn't able to land his power punches. Hogan then switched his role and became the aggressor himself as he was the one throwing the power punches. Both men landed a near identical number of punches in the fight but it was Munguia who threw 671 punches, nearly 200 more attempts than Hogan.
This was Munguia's fourth world title defense since defeating Sadam Ali to win the belt in May 2018. Afterwards, he dominated former world champion Liam Smith and then proceeded to outclass Brandon Cook and Takeshi Inoue. None of them gave Munguia the challenge that Hogan brought in Mexico.
Once the fight was over, Hogan said he wants another shot at the title and that Munguia's promoter offered him one.
“Zanfer Promotions offered us one straight away. They obviously know, everyone knows [that I won the fight]. I’m not one to cry, I’m not one to play, I’ll come back and win the title on neutral ground," Hogan said.
A rematch could potentially delay plans for Munguia's eventual move up to middleweight. The 22-year-old Munguia had previously stated that he believes he will compete in the 160-pound division by next year.
