Oscar De La Hoya says he’s working on putting together a fight between Jaime Munguia and WBC interim super middleweight champion David Benavidez.
De La Hoya states that he’s in talks with Benavidez’s representatives to try and hammer together a deal. However, De La Hoya says there’s a possibility that Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) could face highly ranked 168-lb contender Edgar Berlanga next.
Berlanga’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been pushing hard to have his fighter face Munguia next following Edgar’s tougher-than-expected Matchroom debut against Jason Quigley last June.
Hearn seems unwilling to take no for an answer for the Munguia, saying that he would bring it up to the higher-ups at DAZN to see what they would say about his idea of matching Berlanga against Munguia.
If you’re Benavidez, he should be fighting better than Munguia because he’s not going to improve as a fighter facing weak opposition like this. WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion David Morrell Jr has been calling him out, and a lot of fans think he’s scared of the talented Cuban because he won’t face him.
The more winnable fight for the 26-year-old Munguia is obviously against Berlanga because he’s not very good, but the upside from fighting Benavidez would be tremendous.
Not only would that likely be a far better-paying fight for Munguia than facing the New Yorker Berlanga, but it would put Munguia in a position where he could earn a mega-payday against undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
“I’m working on a right now between Jaime Munguia and Benavideez. I’m talking to his representativeness of Benavidez, but there are whispers that Edgar Berlanga wants to fight Jaime Munguia,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Ariel Helwani’s Youtube channel.
“Yeah, if the opportunity presents itself, and we can sit down and talk. Look, business is business. I have no problem sitting down and talking to somebody that wants to do business and wants to create champions and build superstars. I have no problem with that,” said De La Hoya.
The way that Munguia struggled in his last fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko last June, he wouldn’t be competitive against Benavidez and would probably get knocked out in the first four rounds.
What we saw of Munguia against Derevyanchnko is a fighter that needs a lot more experience under his belt before fighting someone like Benavidez. Munguia is a ten-year pro, and you have to wonder whether he will get any better than he is right now.
Assuming that this is as good as it gets for Munguia, perhaps now is the time for De La Hoya to put him in with a talented fighter like Benavidez in a sink-or-swim fashion.
