Trainer Tony Sims conceded that Jaime Munguia was a better fight than he thought he would be, having defeated English southpaw John Ryder in nine rounds.
Munguia was dominant in Phoenix last weekend, dropping Ryder four times and posting an impressive display. Many felt it would be used as a measuring stick to gauge Munguia’s suitability for a Canelo fight later this year, given that Canelo toiled to a hard but wide win over Ryder last May.
“He was better than we expected,” Sims admitted. “I think he punched harder than I thought he was going to punch. Saying that, you don’t know what that last fight took out of John against Canelo. It was a tough fight, he got hurt in that fight as well. And when you get to the end of your career, the latter stages of your career… He [Ryder] obviously ain’t what he was three or four years ago, so it’s hard to say but I think Munguia is better than we expected. He was tough, he took some big shots himself. John said he punched pretty hard as well, so he’s a decent fighter. It would be a good fight, him versus Canelo, to be honest.”
Sims comfortably puts Munguia up among the best 168-pounders in the world, and thinks the former 154lbs fighter is big enough to hold his own, too.
“Oh 100 per cent,” Sims added. “He’s big on the weight as well, which was quite surprising. He’s a good kid, a good fighter. He has fast hands. His defence was pretty good as well. There was a point where John backed him into the corner and he was pretty slippery and pretty decent on defence as well. He was good, nice jab, good fighter, you know?”
It was a tough watch for Sims from the corner. He saw Ryder dropped twice in the first four rounds and told his fighter he was six points down after four, a deficit that Ryder was always going to find nigh on impossible to turn around. Sims said that it could now be the end of the road for the always courageous Ryder, after the trainer climbed the steps and forced the officials to ring the bell and stop the fight.
“He’s nearly 36 [in July],” Sims went on. “He’s had a pretty good career and I didn’t want to see him take too much more in there. He’d been down four times, so that was enough for me to watch. He probably would have got up and maybe even got through the round, but he was so far behind on points. He’s the type of man who just keeps on going, knock him down, he’ll keep going, but at that stage of your career, at 36, it ain’t a good thing to be doing. So that could be his last fight. He was getting nailed. The knockdown in the ninth round was like a delayed reaction knockdown as well, he caught him flush on the side of the head and it was one of those bad knockdowns… But as I say, John would have kept getting up but you don’t really want to see that at that stage of your career.”
Is that the last we see of the man they call ‘The Gorilla, after a career of 32 wins and seven losses?
“I think so,” Sims added. “He isn’t announcing anything but I can’t see him fighting again after that one.”
