Jamie Munguia vs Liam Smith: Smith Defiant In Defeat

Jaime Munguia vs Liam Smith: Smith Defiant In Defeat:

The WBO light-middleweight title seemed an irrelevance in a thoroughly absorbing contest in Las Vegas. The latest Mexican with the potential superstar tag Jaime Munguia retained his title by a wide margin of 116-111, 119-110 and 119-108, but the scores do not tell the story of a savage brutal fight that deserves to be in the conservation when the fight of the year awards are dished out.

Munguia seemed intent on stopping Smith, while his incredibly brave opponent spat out defiance and simply would not go away and the unbeaten champion must have wondered what he had in front of him. Only in the 6th did Smith show any real signs of wilting when he was dropped in a round when he had started to find pockets of success and hopes were briefly raised that Smith could regain the title he lost to ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in 2016.

Smith was always in the fight despite having to absorb plenty of the heavy artillery that had stopped 25 of the champion’s previous 29 opponents. Munguia was putting so much into his shots that there seemed real hope that he would fade down the stretch if Smith didn’t fall but the Mexican showed an impressive engine and after the 6th the only issue was would Smith last the distance.

Munguia despite the obvious potential has flaws which Smith exposed, his footwork is poor and he is far too easy to hit, a bigger puncher than Smith would surely make him pay but at 21 he has time and knows there is work to be done.

“There are no excuses and we will keep learning because this gave me a lot of experience. I’m only 21 years old and I will keep working in the gym. Liam Smith is a warrior. He is strong. There were times where I really landed punches, which really backed him up. He’s very strong and can take a punch, so I have no excuses. I was always looking for the knockout. I always looked for the fight, and I went in there like a true Mexican. I think going these 12 rounds will serve me as experience.”  

Smith landed plenty but didn’t have the power in his punches to turn the tide in his favour, but the Liverpool fighter turned in one of the bravest performances I have seen from a British fighter in many a year. Smith was always competitive and showed he is a much better fighter than he is given credit for and you can definitely see a scenario where he is manoeuvred into another world title fight.

But Munguia is another of the new breed to take the thriving sport forward and while he is very much a work in progress going forward he won’t face many opponents like Smith, Smith may have lost the fight but he won in so many other ways.

Munguia improves his record to 30-0, while Smith drops to 26-2-1.