PHOENIX — On Saturday night at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, Jaime Munguia, the current WBC Silver Super Middleweight champion and the former WBO Light Middleweight champion, stopped John “The Gorilla” Ryder, the WBO Interim World Super Middleweight champion, in the ninth round.
The southpaw Ryder (32-7, 18KOs) focused on landing one blow at a time in the opening round, while Munguia (43-0, 34KOs) tried to land combinations. Two minutes into the round, Munguia connected on a stunning six-punch combo.
In an effort to slow down the pace of the fight, Ryder a 35 year old boxer from England attempted to force his larger body on Munguia, 27, from Mexico in the second round. However, less than a minute into the round, a combination by Munguia knocked Ryder on the canvas.
In the third and forth round, Munguia continued where he left off, attacking his opponent with powerful blows at the beginning of the round and attempting to outbox him as it went on and he was successful.
Ryder recovered sufficiently in the fifth round to prevent Munguia from capitalizing on the knockdown in the preceding round but Munguia emerged victorious. In the sixth round, Ryder did enough to win.
Using his jab to position his right hand, Munguia emerged quickly in the seventh round. Attempting to counter Ryder with a right hook, Munguia attempted to hit a right to his chin in the eighth round.
The ninth seemed to see Munguia emerge with a mission. Ryder was knocked out after a devastating combination just thirty seconds into the round. After rising to his feet and giving Ryder a barrage of leather blows, Ryder’s corner announced that they would be pulling their fighter to spare him more harm.
“I feel very happy because I worked hard for this,” said Munguia in media reports.
“I know that a lot of people didn’t trust me and that’s why I worked harder to prove them wrong. I know that I have to work on my timing in the ring. Last time I threw a lot of punches but I wanted to control my output more in this fight, ” he added.
“The truth is that it will be a great fight among Mexicans, and if Canelo wants the fight it would be an honor to share the ring with him,” continued Munguia, concerning a possible matchup with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
