Jaime Munguia was pretty much expected to bomb his way to victory tonight against Brandon Cook, and that’s just what he did, stopping the game but overmatched Canadian challenger in the third round to retain his WBO junior middleweight title.
Munguia improved to 31-0 (25 KO) and kept himself in the conversation for big fights at 154 and even 160 — it’s no coincidence he was featured on the Canelo-GGG undercard — with the relatively easy victory. At 21, he’s still got plenty of time to develop into a complete fighter, and he showed some defensive improvements tonight compared to his last win over Liam Smith, where he got hit plenty. (It doesn’t hurt that Smith’s a better fighter than Cook, but still.)
Munguia put Cook (20-2, 13 KO) down in the third round and then stopped him moments later during another assault, with referee Tony Weeks stepping in to end the mismatch.
Munguia landed 29% (43/147) of his total punches, and 39% (36/93) of his power shots. Cook, who gave his best but never got anything going, landed 20% (13/66) of his total punches, and 22% (12/55) of his power shots.