Fight Week: Canelo Alvarez to defend undisputed championship against Jaime Munguia
FIGHT WEEK
Canelo Alvarez is scheduled to defend his undisputed 168-pound championship against countryman Jaime Munguia on pay-per-view Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
CANELO ALVAREZ (60-2-2, 39 KOs)
VS. JAIME MUNGUIA (43-0, 34 KOs)
- Date: Saturday, May 4
- Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
- Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
- TV/Stream: Pay-per-view
- Division: Super middleweight (168 pounds)
- At stake: Alvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO titles
- Boxing Junkie Pound-for-pound: Alvarez No. 6
- Odds: Alvarez 5-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
- Significance (up to five stars): *****
- Also on the card: Mario Barrios vs. Fabian Maidana, welterweights; Brandon Figueroa vs. Jessie Magdaleno, featherweights; Eimantas Stanionis vs. Gabriel Maestre, welterweights; Jesus Ramos Jr. vs. Johan Gonzalez, junior middleweight (Prime Video); Vito Mielnicki Jr. vs. Ronald Cruz, junior middleweights (Prime Video)
- Background: Alvarez will resume his Cinco de Mayo weekend tradition that started more than a decade ago. The 33-year-old future Hall of Famer has won three consecutive fights since he lost a stunning unanimous decision to 175-pound titleholder Dmitry Bivol in May 2022, decisions over Gennadiy Golovkin the following September, John Ryder in May of last year and Jermell Charlo last September. However, the setback against Bivol and subpar performances against Triple-G and Ryder led to the belief that Alvarez is in decline. His performance against Charlo was stronger, perhaps in part because a surgically repaired left wrist injury had healed. Charlo had moved up two divisions for the fight, which limits the weight of Alvarez’s victory. Alvarez was expected to fight 160-pounder Jermall Charlo on Saturday but negotiations fizzled, at which time Munguia stepped in. The 27-year-old from Mexico earned a shot at the sport’s biggest star as a result of his first two fights as a full-fledged 168-pounder, a hard-fought unanimous decision over veteran Sergey Derevyanchenko in June of last year and a ninth-round knockout of Ryder in January. The former 154-pound titleholder seems to be thriving under new trainer Freddie Roach but faces by far the biggest test of his decade-long career.
ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK
THURSDAY
- Erik Bazinyan vs. Shakeel Phinn, super middleweights, Montreal (ESPN+)
FRIDAY
- Richard Fernandez vs. Oscar Arroyo, junior bantamweights, Houston (DAZN)
SATURDAY
- Emmanuel Rodriguez vs. Ryosuke Nishida, bantamweights (for Rodriguez’s IBF title), Osaka, Japan (no TV in U.S.)