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Jaime Munguia blasts out undefeated D’Mitrius Ballard in three rounds to remain unbeaten

Middleweight contender Jaime Munguia
Fighters Network
19
Feb

Jaime Munguia continued his climb up the middleweight ranks with a third-round stoppage of D’Mitrius Ballard Saturday at the Plaza Monumental in Munguia’s hometown of Tijuana, Mexico.

Munguia (39-0, 31 knockouts) put the overmatched American down midway through the third with a barrage of punches before finishing the fight with an assault along the ropes, which was punctuated by a left hook that knocked the mouthpiece out of Ballard (21-1-1, 13 KOs).

The time of stoppage was 1:47, earning Munguia his fourth stoppage win in the five fights since he stepped up to 160 pounds following a reign as the WBO junior middleweight titleholder. Munguia has only gone the distance once since moving up to middleweight, outpointing the durable Gabriel Rosado over twelve rounds in his previous outing in November.

Munguia, 25, is now in pole position with two sanctioning bodies, being ranked no. 1 by the WBC, which has Jermall Charlo as titleholder, and the WBO, where Demetrius Andrade is the champion. He’s also rated no. 2 by the WBA, and no. 12 by the IBF.

Ballard, 28, of Temple Hills, Md. had gained credibility through his draw against Yamaguchi Falcao in 2019, but has fought just twice since the pandemic shut down sports in 2020.

William Zepeda moved himself closer to lightweight contention with a third round knockout of the awkward Luis Angel Viedas in a wild shootout in the co-featured bout.

Zepeda (25-0, 23 knockouts), of San Mateo Atenco, Mexico, scored his 15th straight knockout, but it wasn’t as easy as the result would make it sound. The southpaw Zepeda was dropped in the second round, and promptly lost a point for using his forearm to slow down Viedas (29-12-1, 10 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico.

Zepeda recovered quickly to drop Viedas later that round, and then twice more for the knockout at the 1:51 mark of the third. Zepeda risked a disqualification however for hitting Viedas after two of those knockdowns, including the knockout.

The card was promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and was broadcasted live in the United States on DAZN.

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