Munguia's Dream, Goal is To Secure Golovkin, says Golden Boy Prez

Jaime Munguia may have several compelling options to choose from in the middleweight division, but his top priority remains to land a fight with Kazakh thumper Gennadiy Golovkin, according to his promoter.

Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy, said the company is committed to making that fight for their young client in the new year. Munguia is coming off a solid, if unspectacular, 2021, in which he nabbed victories over Gabriel Rosado and Kamil Szeremeta.

He is scheduled to return on February 19 against D'Mitrius Ballard.

But there is one opponent that he wants to fight sooner than later.

“He wants Golovkin, that’s no secret,” Gomez said on the Chris Mannix Boxing Podcast. “We’ll make every effort to try and make that fight.”

The 25-year-old Tijuana native has some prior history with Golovkin. In 2018, Munguia, then still a prospect, was pitched as a possible opponent for Golovkin, who was looking to salvage a fight date after his rematch with Canelo Alvarez was canceled after Alvarez failed a pair of drug tests. In the end, the Nevada State Athletic Commission rejected Munguia as a candidate, citing his inexperience. Golovkin eventually fought in California, against Vanes Martirosyan. A Golovkin-Munguia bout would potentially benefit from this backstory.

Gomez is confident that a deal can be reached with Golovkin, but he admitted that Golovkin has final say in the matter. Both Munguia (38-0, 30 KOs) and Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) share the same network partner in DAZN.

“We’ve had some preliminary talks,” Gomez said. “And we feel that we can get it done. We feel that the Golovkin fight can get done. It’s totally up to Golovkin if he wants it or not. But we feel we can get it done.”

Whether or not Golovkin-Munguia can actually be made next year will probably depend on what happens with Golovkin’s delayed title defense against Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs). The pair were supposed to fight on Dec. 29 in Japan, but the fight was called off in response to the country’s increased border restrictions regarding the Omicron variant. Promoter Eddie Hearn, who deals with Golovkin, told IFL TV recently that he expects the fight to be postponed to March or April.
 
Gomez said Munguia would consider a title shot against the other beltholders in the division, namely Jermall Charlo (WBC) or Demetrius Andrade (WBO), if Golovkin is unavailable.

“If [the Golovkin fight] doesn’t materialize, yeah, we’ll look at the two other guys,” Gomez said. “We’ll look at Charlo. [Munguia is] currently number one in the WBC and WBO. Munguia is ready for any of the top guys.

“We’re considering the Andrade fight. We’ve talked about it internally. He loves the Charlo fight. He would love to fight Charlo as well.”

Still, Gomez made it clear that a Golovkin fight would represent the most value for his client.

“For him the dream, the idea, for his brand, for him, his career, is Golovkin. You can’t pass that up,” Gomez said.