Highlights: Surace flattens Munguia with Knockout of the Year

Unheralded, undersized Frenchman Bruno Surace authored arguably the most shocking finish of 2024 by crushing Jaime Munguia in Tijuana

2024’s Upset of the Year was authored this evening when Bruno Surace leveled Jaime Munguia in the latter’s native Tijuana.

Munguia (44-2, 35 KO) started patiently, but got into it with Surace (26-0-2, 5 KO) after clinch at the end of the first got chippy. Seemingly angered, he came out firing and sent Surace to the mat with a heavy left hook. Surace quickly scrambled to his feet and got right to trading hands.

Though Surace landed his fair of sharp combinations off the ropes, it seemed inevitable that Munguia’s size and clubbing power would eventually seal the deal. Surace spent long stretches behind a high guard as Munguia uncorked full-body punches at every available surface he could find.

Then, in the seventh, Surace uncorked a monster right hand that felled Munguia like a tree. Munguia managed to claw back just enough consciousness to get to his feet, but without a shred of balance, forcing the referee to call a halt.

It really is hard to overstate the magnitude of this accomplishment. Surace is a natural middleweight, hadn’t been booked for 10 rounds since 2021, and had scored just one finish in the last five years. He’s now officially a player in at least one division.

As for Munguia, it’s similarly difficult to overstate how devastating this loss was. He was teed up for a big-money final eliminator against Christian Mbilli, and even if that fight never came to fruition, he was in position to lurk until Canelo finally retired and ditched the rest of his belts. Alas, his historically negligent defense came back to bite him in the worst way possible.

This doesn’t have to be the end; he’s still just 28. But he cannot keep fighting this way.

Picasso smokes late replacement Cuello, stays in line for title shot

WBC super bantamweight mandatory challenger Alan Picasso kept his spot in the Naoya Inoue queue with a third-round finish of late replacement Yehison Cuello.

Picasso (31-0-1, 17 KO), last seen beating Azat Hovhannisyan in a final eliminator, was originally slated to face Ghana’s Isaac Sackey. Colombia’s Cuello (13-3-1, 11 KO) took this fight on a day’s notice and put up about as much fight as expected. The bigger, faster, more skilled Picasso showcased his usual volume punching and ultimately put him down for the count with a body shot.

Recent buzz claimed that Picasso would face Inoue next year ahead of “The Monster’s” planned megafight with Junto Nakatani, but between the delay to Inoue’s fight with Sam Goodman and the possibility of the WBA forcing him to face Murodjon Akhmadaliev afterwards, that’s up in the air.

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