Munguia knocks out D’Mitrius Ballard in three rounds
Back home for the first time in more than four years, Jaime Munguía did not miss the opportunity to shine by knocking out American D’Mitrius Ballard at one minute and 47 seconds of the third round in front of more than 12 thousand fans at the Monumental Plaza de Toros in Tijuana, leaving the field ready to go in search of the two-time world championship.
Munguía, who stepped into the ring accompanied by Grupo Codiciado, sent Ballard to the canvas at the beginning of the third round, and then it was just a matter of time, because he came at him with two-handed punches and with a new barrage caused referee JJ Ramirez to stop the main fight of the Zanfer Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions bill.
The Mexican, trained by legend Erik ‘Terrible’ Morales, made it clear that he continues to improve technically, and that he is ready for bigger challenges at 160 pounds, as the fans have asked him to do since he vacated the 154-pound world championship. He asked for the winner of Gennadiy Golovkin and Ryota Murata, who will face each other in April in Japan in a unification fight.
In the contest, Jaime started the first by dropping only the jab. In the second he managed to connect some solid combinations, but it was in the third when he showed his highest level over a Ballard who could not withstand the gale and after a left roundhouse, he went backwards hurt and later to the canvas after a couple of more projectiles. The American got up, but only to take more punishment to the cheers of the fans who saw the referee intervene to stop the fight.
With this result, Munguia improved to 39-0 with 31 knockouts, while Ballard now stands at 20-1-1 with 13 knockout victories.
In the co-featured bout, in an eventful fight with multiple knockdowns, Mexican William ‘Camaron’ Zepeda defeated Luis ‘Bofo’ Viedas in three episodes, but not before visiting the canvas on one occasion. A blow when Viedas was already on the canvas could have jeopardized William’s victory, but the referee did not notice it and guaranteed his victory. Viedas went down three times, once in the second round and twice more in the third.
Meanwhile, in a tremendous bout, Diego ‘Azabache’ Torres dropped his perfect knockout record and had to go all out to defeat a valiant Jonathan ‘Perita’ Escobedo. The scorecards solidly favored Torres in a duel of Jalisco, but did not portray how entertaining the bout was because of ‘Perita’s commitment throughout the contest. Also, Jalisco’s Rafael ‘Divino’ Espinoza took care of the Filipino Alie Laurel in the first round after sending him to the canvas twice before receiving a full count from the third man in the ring.
