That Winning Moment For @JaimeMunguia15 #MunguiaInoue pic.twitter.com/SsvlEKC0xw
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) January 27, 2019
Jaime Munguia may have won nearly every round of the fight, but he had to do so in a thrilling war with Takeshi Inoue to remain champion.
Munguia (32-0, 26 KOs) stood toe-to-toe with his counterpart for nearly the entire 12 rounds of their WBO super welterweight showdown, but the defending champion was a step ahead of Inoue throughout. Munguia landed the sharper, harder punches in the majority of the exchanges and if it wasn’t for the Japanese fighter’s marble chin, the fight likely would have ended early.
Inoue (13-1-1, 7 KOs) never stopped trying to turn the tides against the Mexican, but Munguia remained in control throughout. As wild as the fight was down the stretch, Munguia never wavered and out-landed his challenger repeatedly. The raucous crowd inside Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, was delighted by the savagery inside the ring, but on the cards it was a landslide; Munguia won via tallies of 120-108 (twice) and 119-109.
In the DAZN-televised co-feature, it was another all-out war for 12 full rounds. Xu Can withstood Jesus Rojas’s early body attack and eventually forced the defending champion into a phone booth-type of war until the end. The Chinese contender wound up snatching Rojas’s WBA featherweight title in what is an early leader for Fight of the Year. Can (11-0, 1 KO) was awarded the win with scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112, though the fight certainly seemed much closer than what the judges turned in. Rojas, from Puerto Rico, fell to 26-3-2 with 19 KOs.