Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs Jaime Munguia: Preview & Prediction

We are a little over 24 hours away from the highly anticipated undisputed super middleweight title fight between the champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) and the undefeated Jaime Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs). There are a few different streaming options for this PPV, but what they all have in common is that it will cost you $89.99 here in the States. Will we see Canelo once again prove why he is at the top of the food chain in boxing, or is this Munguia’s moment to become the new face of boxing by dethroning the king?

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE KING OR IS IT?

Canelo has been the king of the sport for a while now, and when you have the top spot, everyone is gunning for it, making it the loneliest position to be in. Canelo has accepted this position and thrived during most of his fights but also went through some adversity during the first two Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin fights and, more recently, his loss to Dmitry Bivol. With each fight that passes, fans wonder when that moment will come when he either gets old in the ring or gets too comfortable being king. At 33, with 64 fights on his resume, that moment could very easily be on Saturday night against Munguia.

How does Canelo avoid losing his titles against Munguia? He has to become the fighter he hasn’t been in a while, which is one that throws more than two punches at a time. He’s gotten away with it against Caleb Plant and Jermell Charlo, but against Dmitry Bivol, it cost him the fight. Munguia has shown to have a chin, so Canelo will have to work the body and hope that Munguia’s weight cut was bad enough that the accumulated body punches will slow him down dramatically. Canelo will also have to use his masterful counter-punching ability to catch Munguia when he is exposed defensively, which will often happen in this fight. As long as Canelo can gain Munguia’s respect for his punching power, he should be able to fight his way towards a decision victory.

JAIME MUNGUIA IS GETTING A TASTE OF LIFE AT THE TOP & DESIRES IT EVEN MORE

Munguia’s career trajectory has been extremely frustrating, but the plan all along was to get the Canelo fight, and they managed to do that while getting complete buy-in from the boxing fans. Even though the media had been peppering Munguia with questions on his career track, he’s kept it cool and remained confident that his team knew what they were doing. When Munguia showed up at the Beverly Hills Hotel to announce the fight, he looked like a kid in a candy store, seeing everything for the first time. He was smiling ear to ear, and his body language screamed, “So this is what it’s like to be the man.” From there, Munguia started to show off more of his confidence and even called for a stoppage before the eighth round, which is out of character for the humble 27-year-old Mexican fighter.

How does Munguia turn his dreams into reality? He has to do it with volume and brace himself for whatever comes back to him. Munguia’s reckless style is good and bad for him against Canelo. Good that he has to use his all-out attack to smother Canelo but needs to do it in spots and not stay in the pocket too long. This approach is also bad for him as when Munguia unleashes his offense, he often does it without remembering to have his hands back to protect himself. This is where he can be vulnerable to Canelo’s counterpunches. If Munguia can be smart with his pressure and not get caught up with the crowd cheering, he can potentially steal a decision victory or at least make it a competitive enough fight to demand a rematch.

SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ VS JAIME MUNGUIA PREDICTION

This fight will start off slow but heat up from the middle to late rounds with Canelo earning a majority decision. This will set up the highly anticipated rematch in September.

SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ VS JAIME MUNGUIA BETTING ODDS

Per DraftKings SportsBook, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is the favorite at -525, and Jaime Munguia is the underdog at +380.

Looking to bet on Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs Jaime Munguia this upcoming weekend? Head over to my dedicated page at signupexpert.com/fightsATW to sign up to some of boxing’s best sportsbooks. Right now DraftKings Sportsbook is offering matched deposit bonus up to $1,000 to new users. Already have DraftKings Sportsbook? No problem, you can sign up to any sportsbook in your region through the link in the description!

SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ VS JAIME MUNGUIA DATE, START TIME

• Date: Saturday, May 4
• Start time: 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT
• Main event ringwalks (approx): 11:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. PT

These timings could change due to the length of the undercard fights. 

WHAT CHANNEL/STREAM IS SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ VS JAIME MUNGUIA?

• U.S.: Prime Video PPV, PPV.com & DAZN PPV ($89.99)
• UK:   DAZN PPV

SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ VS JAIME MUNGUIA FIGHT CARD

• Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Jaime Munguia; For Alvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles
• Mario Barrios vs. Fabian Maidana; For Barrios’ WBC interim world welterweight title
• Brandon Figueroa vs. Jessie Magdaleno; For Figueroa’s WBC interim world featherweight title
• Eimantas Stanionis vs. Gabriel Maestre; For Stanionis’ WBA “regular” welterweight title

Looking to bet on this weekend’s fights? Head over to my dedicated page at signupexpert.com/fightsATW to sign up to some of boxing’s best sportsbooks.

Abraham Gonzalez

Abraham Gonzalez is the founder of FightsATW. His journalistic work has been published and used across several platforms to include online, network TV and promotional companies. He is an American Public University alumnus and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). Abraham was the Managing Editor for NYFights, Big Fight Weekend, contributed to FanSidedMMA and ProBoxTV.

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