Mijares-Munoz: The Best Fight This Weekend Gets Closer

Mijares-Munoz: Saturday’s Best Fight Seeks an Audience By Cliff Rold (May 14, 2008) Two of the three best fighters in one of Boxing’s two or three best divisions, gloved up and ready to throw. That should be all a Boxing fan need hear to be ready to plop down on the sofa, sacrificing another Saturday night. Sometimes, for whatever reason, it’s not all that’s needed. If this Saturday is one of those cases, it would be a shame because the Cristian Mijares-Alexander Munoz Jr. Bantamweight (115 lb.) unification clash at the Auditorio Centenario in Durango, Mexico, a classic boxer vs. puncher showdown, is as good as it gets on paper. Off paper, at least in the U.S. market, it’s a matter of aesthetics. On the Friday scales, Mijares and Munoz will presumably weigh no more than 230 lbs. Combined. In a nation where the Heavyweights, even the mediocre ones of today, are still largely king, that can be a problem. The mini-mites might sell in the Asian market, and in Latin national regional markets, but it’s always been tough to sell the bulk of U.S. fight fans on their merits, at least in a stand-alone main event; especially as a main event that costs extra. So be it. This isn’t a fight banking on the casual fan anyways. Chances are good that for regular readers at Maxboxing, and chances great for regular readers of this humble columnist, Mijares and Munoz aren’t unfamiliar names. Beyond those masses, the core fanbase that makes up the 200-thousand plus who tuned in for Kelly Pavlik-Jermain Taylor II this past February, and the three-hundred thousand plus who tuned in for Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales II in January 2006, knows them too. The undercard showings that were Mijares’ dominant win over 2000 U.S. Olympian Jose Navarro, and Munoz’s narrow rematch loss to Martin Castillo, hinted at what might be coming this weekend, a weekend where the fight of the week is as pure a fight fans fight as it gets. Read the Rest at: http://www.maxboxing.com/Cliff/Rold0514m08.asp