Despite a spirited performance by Takeshi Inoue, Jaime Munguia emerged victorious in his third world title defense.
In the main event of a Golden Boy Promotions card from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, Munguia outpointed Inoue to retain his WBO junior middleweight title. Munguia won the fight, streamed on DAZN, by unanimous decision with scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 119-109.
The 22-year-old Munguia started the first couple of rounds deciding to outbox Inoue instead of starting off with relentless power shots from the beginning as he usually did in past fights. Munguia's jabs were still deadly as they landed easily on Inoue's head and eventually caused a cut above Inoue's left eye in the third round.
Inoue fought hard and tried to bring the fight to Munguia, but was unable to do anything to hurt the champion in the first three rounds. The two boxers traded big uppercuts halfway through the fourth round with Inoue landing one on Munguia's chin. Inoue did manage to push Munguia to the ropes late in the round and connected several right hands to Munguia's chin.
Munguia and Inoue traded big shots throughout the fight, but Munguia was the one who landed the better punches. Inoue continued to push forward, tried to engage in a slugfest for the rest of the fight and managed to even land several power punches in the second half of the fight. Munguia was pushed out of his comfort zone by Inoue, but the champion still proved to be the more active, accurate and stronger puncher.
12 rounds de pura pelea y tremenda guerra!
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) January 27, 2019
120-108, 120-108, 119-109 ¿Están de acuerdo con los jueces? --#MunguiaInoue pic.twitter.com/HafahAvOsx
The win was Munguia's fourth in a world title bout, improving his overall record to 32-0. Munguia won the WBO title in May 2018 when he easily beat Sadam Ali in the fourth round of their fight and would go on to defend the title twice more with victories over Liam Smith and Brandon Cook later in the year.
